Destines gone Awry
by Zexion77
Summary: Alex Rothrock is a System Moderator of the Eternal Sphere. One day he is given the job of testing a new upgrade. But when something goes wrong he ends up stuck in the Eternal Sphere and he meets Fayt and company. Will he help them or go against them?
1. The New Job

Destinies gone Awry

By Zexion72

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean. I never have and I never will.

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Prologue:

_I was just another ordinary person living a normal life. My name is Alex Rothrock, I am 23 years old and I work at the Sphere Company. I am part of the team that designed the Eternal Sphere and I am a System Moderator. Though now a days I am working on the Executioner project. At first I didn't want to get involved in it, but then my best friend, Luther, assigned me the job of designing the body structure of the Executioners and what they look like. Since he is the Owner I have to do anything he tells me to do. I take pride in my work, but somehow it doesn't feel right. Regardless of how I felt about the Executioners I continued to work on them. But on that day, everything would change...

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Chapter 1: The new job

I had just gotten a call from Luther, he said that he wanted to see me. I got up from my seat and walked out of the room, down the hallway, and towards the elevator. I selected the highest floor and walked into the elevator. I never understood why they made the Sphere company so big. I know that the Eternal Sphere hard drive is several floors large but what are we going to do with 211 floors? I haven't even been in half of them. Not even Luther has been on all 211 floors. I walked into Luther's office, he was sitting at his computer typing something.

"Ah, there you are Alex," said Luther as he looked over at me.

"Hey Luther, so there is something you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked.

"Yes. But first, it's lunch time. I don't know about you but I am starting to get hungry," said Luther as he got up from his chair.

"Of course I'm hungry! I skipped breakfast this morning so I could upload E.B.S. (Enforcer Body Structure)5823 and E.B.S.6497. They are due today, right?" I asked. Luther sighed.

"I appreciate your dedication to the project, but you should take care of yourself more. Killing yourself over work won't get you very far."

"I know, it's just that... well..." I paused and looked down at the ground. What the Executioners were being used for weighed heavily on me, these things that I am designing are going to kill so many innocent people. I looked up and continued speaking. "I want to finish this project as soon as possible. It's hard to work on it because of what it's for." Luther didn't say anything for a few seconds, but the look in his eyes gave me the hint that he really didn't care what the Executioners were going to do once we release them into the Milky Way Galaxy.

"Blair was talking to be about this recently. But if we don't do something about this problem, not only will it cause a bunch of bugs in the Eternal Sphere that could lead to it crashing but it will be possible for beings from the Eternal Sphere to come into our universe and kill anyone they find. I am sure you don't want that, Alex." The thought of something like that happening makes me shudder.

"No... I don't want that," I slowly replied. On the other hand, Luther does have a point. If we don't do something about this problem the beings of the Eternal Sphere would be able to find away into our universe, and who knows what they would do if they found out the truth about their universe. The Executioners may be a needlessly violent way of solving this problem but we don't have a choice. We can't cut off the Eternal Sphere from the terminals in our world, that would trap so many of our people in the Eternal Sphere. Not to mention that doing that would also delete the Eternal Sphere, resulting in those people who are trapped being deleted as well. If we delete the Eternal Sphere then the Sphere company will lose it's biggest money maker. For some reason we are unable to delete the Milky Way Galaxy. All of that said the only way to get rid of this problem is to use the Executioners.

"Anyway, I have our lunches at my desk. We can talk about why I called you here while we eat," said Luther in an attempt to change the subject.

"Sounds like a good idea," I said as my stomach let out a large growl. We sat down and started eating. At least the food served at the Sphere company is good, I have heard that some of the companies in the Lost City don't provide very good food.

"So I suppose you want to know why I called you here," said Luther. I looked up from my food.

"Yes. I suppose this isn't an invitation to eat lunch with you or something," I said. Luther chuckled a little bit.

"Oh, come on, Alex. Is there some sort of rule that says friends can't eat together?" Luther cleared his throat and continued talking. "Anyway, you're right. I called you because I have a job that I want to offer to you. Of course, it is optional."

"Do you want me to design new types of Executioners?" I asked figuring that this was the new job.

"No, we're fine with what you have made already. The new job involves the recent upgrade in the Eternal Sphere."

"You mean the upgrade that will allow System Administrators and Moderators to access the new debug tool anywhere in the Eternal Sphere?" I asked out of curiosity. Luther nodded.

"That's right. You see we can't really test it until someone goes into the Eternal Sphere and tries it out. Plus we need to test the new safety mode we have added into the coding on each and ever Executioner."

"Safety mode?"

"That's right. It was programed into the Executioners so that if any of the staff has to go into the Milky Way Galaxy for any reason they can do it without getting killed by an Executioner."

"So you want me to test out both of those things?"

"That's right," said Luther with a grin. "So, will you do the job?" I thought about it for a moment. It's something different from my daily job, so why not?

"Yes, I will take the job."

"Excellent. Anyway, let's go to my terminal." Luther and I stood up and walked through the door that lead to the room with all of the terminals. Inside, several staff members were at the computers while Azazer, Berial, Belzeber, and Blair were standing around waiting for Luther and I. Blair turned around to face us as the door opened.

"There you two are," said Blair.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting. Is everything ready for the experiment?" Asked Luther.

"Yes, everything is ready. We can start whenever you want to," said Blair as she pointed over at the main computer.

"Alright, then let's get started," said Luther as he walked over to the main computer. He looked over at me. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get into the terminal." I nodded and walked into the terminal.

"Terminal activated. Location set. Place of transportation: Milky Way Galaxy. Planet: Elicoor II. Area: Palmira plains," said one of the staff members as they typed the data into the computer.

"Coordinates locked on, now starting preparation sequence," said Blair. On the main computer the following message popped up: ALEX ROTHROCK... SYSTEM MODERATOR... SUCCESSFULLY LOGGED IN... NOW STARTING TRANSPORTATION... Suddenly I felt that feeling of being transported and within a second I was at the specified location. Palmira plains were large and filled with life, places like these make me proud of my work on the Eternal Sphere (excluding the Executioners).

"How are things down there?" Asked Luther.

"Good," I replied.

"I'm sure you know how to access the debugging menu, so bring it up now."

"Okay," I said as I slowly rose my hand up. A screen appeared in front of me. I browsed around on the various menus to see what sort of things I could do with this debugging tool.

"So, what do you think of the new debugging tool?" Asked Blair.

"It's very nice, a lot better than the old version. The fact that you can customize how big the screen is and what it looks like is a nice touch," I said as I deactivated the debugging tool.

"Well, it seems to work fine. Now for the next half of this test," said Azazer.

"Alex, has anyone ever told you that you are reckless?" Asked Belzeber.

"Yeah, Luther has called me that loads of times," I said as I folded my arms.

"Loading Enforcer into Elicoor II..." Said Blair. An Enforcer appeared in front of me suddenly. Now it's time to see how this turns out. Meanwhile, back in the Sphere Company, Blair was looking at the data on her screen when suddenly another red box popped up and a little warning signal started beeping. "Hmmmm..." Said Blair as she read the text. Berial and Azazer turned around and walked over to Blair.

"Is something wrong?" Asked Berial.

"Yes, it's this," replied Blair as she pointed at the text. Berial read what it was saying.

"Error in sector 685D3C?"

"It's probably just a little bug caused by use of symbology in the Eternal Sphere," commented Azazer.

"I hope your right," said Blair. Back on Elicoor II, the Enforcer looked at me. For a few seconds there was silence. Then the Enforcer spoke.

"Welcome, System Moderator Alex," said the Enforcer in a gruff voice. "What's brings you here to this region of the Eternal Sphere? This galaxy is going to be destroyed soon."

"I am aware of that, I was sent down here to test the new debugging tool," I replied. The Enforcer nodded and then it disappeared.

"Test over, alright we will pull you ASAP," said Luther.

"Okay, take your time," I said.

"Now starting transportation process..." Said Blair. The blue square appeared below my feet. Suddenly I heard an alarm go off in the communicator.

"What's going on up there?" I asked.

"Some sort of glitch has occured! It's completely destroying the transportation system! The transportation command is being rejected!" Exclaimed Blair.

"What? How can this be? This is the most guarded and protected terminals in the entire building!" Exclaimed Luther as he spun around to look over at his Sister.

"It must be that error from earlier." The screen suddenly went completely red and it was flashing: "System Crash".

"No! Alex is still in there! If the system crashes he will be locked into the Eternal Sphere!" Exclaimed Luther as he started typing something furiously in an attempt to override the crash. Suddenly all the of the screens in the room shut off. "No!" The square I was standing on suddenly started flashing and I was shot off of it by a bunch of energy bolts. I landed on the ground and slowly got up.

"Owww... what the hell happened?" I asked.

"We don't know. Not only has the system crashed but now you are locked into the Eternal Sphere," said Luther trying to sound as calm as possible.

"WHAT? Locked in the Eternal Sphere? No!" I exclaimed. Oh great, now I am stuck in this virus filled galaxy where the Enforcers are about to be unleashed, situation: I'm kinda screwed.

"Don't worry, there is a way out of the Eternal Sphere without using a terminal," said Blair.

"Really?" This is good, so maybe I am not screwed.

"There is a device called the Time Gate on planet Styx. If you use the debugging tool you should be able to convert it into a portal back to our world," said Blair, crushing all of my hope.

"Styx? But I am on Elicoor II! Why did it have to be on Styx?"

"It's the way we designed it I'm afraid."

"Alex, you will most likely need this," said Luther. Suddenly a large box appeared on the ground. I walked over to it and opened it. As I saw what was inside I grinned. There was a metal pole with a small button in the middle of it.

"My energy swallow! Thanks, this will come in handy," I said.

"We are going to work on reloading the system and we are going to upload the Executioners into the Milky Way. For your sake you had better get to Styx as quick as you can. Good luck, Alex," said Luther.

"Wait, Luther! How am I supposed to get to Styx?" There was no reply. "Damn! Looks like I am going to have to explore this Elicoor II place and try to find a way to Styx." As I started walking I looked to my left to see a large spider crawling towards me. "Good, I need to fight something. I am a little bit pissed off at the fact that I am stuck here and I don't' know how to get to my destination." I pressed the button on my swallow and two red energy blades shot out of both ends of the swallow. The spider slowly started moving faster. I charged towards it and stabbed it in the face with my swallow. The energy blade went through the spider's face, killing it. I deactivated my swallow. "Ha! You thought you stood a chance against me! You thought I was easy prey, huh? Well guess WHAT, I am not easy prey! I have been trained to fight and I spare with Luther on a regular basis!"

I continued walking across the palmira plains. I stopped walking and activated the debugging tool. I set it to a smaller size and then I activated the map function. I started browsing around the map of the current area. "Let's see, there is a nearby town called Arias in this direction." I deactivated the debugging tool. "Once I go there I should ask some people a few questions to get a better understanding of this place."

"You know, talking to yourself like that isn't a good idea. It tends to freak people out," said a voice behind me. I shot around to see a group of three people behind me. I had not even noticed them coming. The one on the left was a large, muscular man with blonde hair. The one in the middle was a smaller man with blue hair. The one on the far right was a woman and had red hair. The one thing I noticed in particular about the woman with red hair were the symbology symbols tattooed on her legs. If the people of the Eternal Sphere have gained this much knowledge about symbology than the worst cast scenario is even closer to happening than we thought.

"You don't look like you are from this area," said the woman with red hair.

"Yeah, I'm not. I'm from another country," I said.

"So who exactly are you?" Asked the man with blue hair.

"The name's Alex Rothrock, and you guys are?" I asked.

"Cliff Fittir," said the large man with blonde hair.

"My name is Fayt Leingod," said the man with blue hair.

"I'm Nel Zelpher," said the woman with red hair.

"Nice to meet you three," I said. Okay, in truth I was lying. I really wasn't happy about meeting people from the Milky Way.

"Likewise. So you said that you wanted to find out what is going on this region, right?" Asked Nel.

"That's right."

"Then come with us, we know who you can ask your questions to." Well, at least I will gain some information, that's a start.

"Well then, in that case I will gladly accompany you guys."

"The more the merrier," said Fayt with a smile.

"Indeed." We started walking towards Arias. Nel looks like she is from this world, but Cliff and Fayt... they could prove to be quite useful. If I play my cards right I might be able to find a way to Styx. Of course I will have to get some background information on them first.

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_At least, that's what I had planned in the beginning. I could never have imagined that things would go as they did.

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_

So what will happen next? Find out in the next chapter. Anyway, please review.


	2. Fear

Well here is the next chapter, but first I would like to say: Thank you all who reviewed. Anyway, onto the disclaimer, wOOt!

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean, never have, never will.

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Chapter 2: Fear

We arrived in this town called Arias. It was a small town that was badly damaged for some reason. Plus there was something odd in the air, it must be because of how silent the town is. There are very few people walking around and there are several soldiers here and there muttering.

"What's going on here? Why is this town so badly damaged?" I asked as I looked around.

"This was the result of an attack from Airyglyph," replied Nel.

"Airyglyph?"

"The country that is next to our country, Aquaria. We are currently at war with them and we have been for the past few years. You will hear more details at our headquarters."

"Okay." This was the first time I had ever been in a place that was at war with another country. In all of my life I have never heard of any wars in my world, I don't think there has been any of them for over a millennium.

"There you are Lady Nel. Commander Clair is waiting for you at Headquarters," said a soldier as he walked over to Nel.

"Right, I am on my way over there," said Nel. We continued walking towards a large building. So this must be the headquarters that Nel was talking about. We went inside and entered the door on the left. This room was some sort of conference room. A woman with grey hair and an outfit similar to Nel's outfit was sitting at the table. Two other people dressed in armor were on the other side of the table. The woman with grey hair looked over at us.

"There you are Nel," said the woman. Then her eyes shifted over to me. "And who is this?"

"This is Alex, we met him outside of Arias," said Nel.

"Welcome Alex, I'm Clair Lasbard." I simply nodded and we all sat down. The first part of the conversation was battle tactics. It was boring but fortunately it wasn't that long. After the two people dressed in armor left, Clair looked back at Nel.

"Nel, there is something else I would like you to do tomorrow. A task I am entrusting to you. I want you to destroy Airyglyph's commander center."

"So your saying you want me to take out Vox, right?" Asked Nel.

"That's right." Clair looked over at Fayt and Cliff. "Cliff, Fayt..." Clair then looked over at me. "...and Alex. Please assist Nel in her mission."

"Will do," said Cliff.

"Sure," said Fayt. Soon everyone was looking over at me waiting for me to answer. I was silent for a moment while I thought about it.

"Okay," I said.

"I'm sorry to be getting you involved in this, Alex. Especially when you just came into town today," said Clair.

"It's all right, if there is something I can do to help than I am willing to try it. So why is Airyglyph attacking this country anyway?"

"Many believe that they want our land so they can grow more food for themselves. As a result they attacked us without any form of negotiation or politics," said Nel.

"Sounds more like a bunch of warmongers raising their fists into the air and attacking before asking questions."

"You are probably right about that. With people like Albel and Vox in command of the army it's no surprise that they just suddenly started attacking." The truth is I really didn't care that they were at war or that they were being attacked by a war-hungry country. The only reason I agreed to help was to gain Cliff and Fayt's trust. If I can make them think that I am one of their comrades I should be able to get a ride to Styx.

"Alright, now that we have agreed check your equipment and rest if you have to. We start this mission at dawn. Cliff, Fayt, and Alex. You three may leave." Clair looked over at Nel. "We have several things that need to be discussed, please stay here." Cliff, Fayt, and I left the room. I walked outside, as I was about to start gathering information I felt someone slam their hand down onto my left shoulder. I spun around to see Cliff and Fayt behind me.

"So Alex, what are you doing on this planet?" Asked Cliff.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"It's kind of obvious that you are not from this world. Were you stranded here?" Asked Fayt.

"Yeah, you could say that," I said.

"Well don't worry. Our ship is coming soon, when it does come we are going to leave this hunk of rock and head out to where we have to go. Your welcome to come with us," said Cliff.

"Thanks, so could you tell me more about yourselves, like why you guys are here?"

"Sure. There was a recent attack on a planet called Hyda IV. Fayt here is one of the people who were on that planet at the time. His escape pod ended up on Vanguard III. I am a member of Quark, and our leader wants to meet with Fayt. So she sent me and Mirage, who you haven't met, to go find him. We went to Vanguard III and picked Fayt up. On the way to the rendezvous point we were attacked by the same group that attacked Hyda IV, the Vendeeni. We escaped but our ship was badly damaged and we ended up crash landing here," explained Cliff.

"I see. So we are all stuck on this underdeveloped planet. Let's hope that your ship comes soon." I had learned how to talk like I was from this galaxy so no one would suspect that I was from another universe.

"I wouldn't say that this place is a that much of an underdeveloped planet. You should take a look at some of the runological devices they have made," said Fayt.

"Runological?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Runology is basically Symbology. People on Elicoor II call it Runology." I will have to look into these runological devices and see what kind of powers these beings are capable of using.

"I see, well thank you for giving me the low down of what's going on," I said with a smile.

"Your welcome," said Fayt.

"Ah, don't mention it," said Cliff.

"Well I am going to have a look around this town. See you guys later," I said.

"See ya, Alex." I waved goodbye and started walking around town. I started talking to various people, most of them being runologists. They would gladly show off their abilities to me and the engineers loved talking about how powerful their runological weapons are. Okay, I have enough info. Time to report to Luther. I accessed the debugging tool and I resized it, reshaped it, and configured it so it would appear on my left wrist as a wrist guard. I went behind a corner and activated the communicator function. I typed in the command to contact Luther. A screen popped up with Luther on the screen.

"It's good to see that you are okay, Alex. So tell me what your current status is," said Luther.

"I am currently securing a trip to Styx so I can get back to our universe," I said.

"Good, anything else?"

"Yes, bad news I'm afraid," I said as a look of concern appeared on my face.

"What is the bad news?"

"You remember the meeting where we determined the worst case scenario and how soon it would occur if it does happen?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It seems the worst case scenario is going to happen a lot sooner than we thought at the rate things are going."

"That bad?"

"Yes. The people know how to use symbology really well. On this underdeveloped planet they have developed weapons that can use symbology."

"Advanced spells?" I shook my head.

"No, standard spells." Luther let out a sigh of relief.

"Seems everything is still running smoothly. Alex, I want you to report anything else you find out."

"Alright, I will."

"Oh and one more thing, be careful."

"Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself." The screen went blank and I walked back inside the mansion. I am feeling a bit tired so I'm going to go rest. The only problem is... I don't know where the bed rooms are.

"You looking for something, Alex?" Asked someone over to my left. I looked to the left to see Nel standing next to the door to the conference room.

"Yes, where am I sleeping?" I asked.

"Follow me," said Nel as she walked towards a flight of stairs. I followed her to the second floor and she let me to one of the doors. She opened it and inside was Cliff and Fayt. "This is the guest room, this is where the three of you sleep."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." With that, Nel closed our door and left.

"So, you guys ready for bed?" Asked Cliff.

"Yeah, I'm tired," said Fayt.

"Same here," I said.

"Then get some sleep. The last thing we need is you guys losing tomorrow because of lack of sleep," said Cliff. The next morning came quickly. As the sun slowly started to rise we headed down to the conference room where Clair and Nel were waiting.

"There you three are. Are you ready?" Asked Nel.

"Yeah," I said.

"Ready when you guys are," said Cliff.

"Yeah, I'm ready," said Cliff.

"Do you need a weapon, Alex?" Asked Clair.

"No, I'm fine. I have this," I said as pulled out the handle of my swallow.

"You know, I really don't think that metal pole is going to do you any good, Alex," said Cliff.

"This isn't just a pole, you'll see once we are on the battlefield." I wasn't remotely frightened or scared that I was about to go into a large battle. In fact I was looking forward to it, the chance to get rid of some of these bugs in the Eternal Sphere.

"Alright then, let's head on out to the field," said Clair. Soon the entire force had assembled in front of Clair outside of Arias. Clair started giving her little speech and then we assembled into our places.

"So how many are there?" I asked.

"Walk over to that cliff and you will see," said Clair. I walked up to where the Runological weapons were. As I looked at the horizon I starred in shock. There were thousands of soldiers. Most of them were on ground but in the air was a legion of knights on dragons. Okay, bad situation. I can't handle that many, there is no way that Nel, Cliff, Fayt or even me can reach Vox with that many soldiers between us and him. I walked back over to Cliff, Fayt, and Nel. Soon there was the sound of thousands of feet and the sound of armor in the distance. It was slowly getting louder and louder. This is bad, just in case I should probably activate it. Normally, if I was fighting in the real world I would have to rely on my skills with a weapon. But since I am in the Eternal Sphere I am able to use all of my powers as a System Moderator. I may not be as powerful as Luther but I can still put up a good fight. As we got assembled into ranks Nel looked over at Cliff, Fayt, and I.

"You three, once we break through the first set of ranks we will head straight to Vox," said Nel. If we are going to be charging through ranks of enemies I am going to have to use a better weapon. A swallow isn't meant for this situation. I activated me debugging tool. I pressed a few buttons and I felt another weapon materialize in my large pocket. I pulled it out, the weapon I had chosen for this battle was an energy sword. Slowly, Airyglyph's army was coming closer. Clair extended her hand and commanded the unit we were in to charge. We started running down towards them and they started running towards us. I activated my energy sword and charged down towards the enemy. I didn't care who I was fighting or who I was going to kill they were all bugs that had to be deleted. As I reached one of the soldiers in the front line I plunged my sword towards him. The energy blade plunged through the armor and into the soldier's innards. I pulled the sword out and then I cut another soldier to my right in half. Suddenly I felt something grab onto me and pull me into the air. I looked up to see that I was being clutched by a dragon. A few seconds later I was dropped towards the ground. Damn, what a cheap battle tactic. I aimed my hand towards the ground, suddenly a large pillar of earth shot out of the ground and I landed on it. This is one of the times that I like being able to manipulate the structure of the landscape in the Eternal Sphere.

"Hey, Alex. How did you get all the way up there?" Asked Cliff from the ground.

"Beat's me," I said. I looked around to see that the pillar was surrounded by bunch of soldiers. Not only that but the same dragon that had picked me up was now heading towards me. Good, time for some payback. I saw the dragon coming towards me at a fast pace. I pulled out my energy sword and this time I threw it at the dragon. The blade went through the dragon and it fell to the ground. Now that I have that taken care of... the only problem remaining is the fact that a bunch of soldiers are ready and waiting for me to jump down. If I don't approach this careful I will be putting myself at risk of getting severely hurt. I activated the symbology energy chain program and shot it towards the ground. I pulled out the handle of my swallow and I put it on top of the line and I slid down to the ground with it.

As I landed I deactivated the symbology energy chain and activated my swallow. Fayt, Cliff, and Nel looked over at me as I landed.

"How did you do that?" Asked Nel.

"It's just something I can do," I said with a smile.

"Right," said Nel with a tone that clearly stated that she didn't seem to believe me. "Once we clear a path we will continue heading towards Vox." A group of soldiers charged towards us. With our combined strength the group of soldiers didn't stand a chance. Once a path was cleared we continued to proceed to the location of this Vox person. If only I could summon one of the Executioners, this would be really easy. But since that isn't an option right now and I would rather not have the beings of the Eternal Sphere know about the Executioners yet. A little nasty surprise for them to find out on their own. Finally after several battles and a lot of walking and running we reached Vox.

Vox was quite the fearsome looking opponent. He had short brownish-blonde hair and brown eyes. On his face was a scowl that would intimidate just about anybody. His presence and his physical appearance made it obvious that he wasn't leading this army for nothing.

"I figured someone would come to attack me," said Vox. He looked at Fayt and Cliff. "Well, well, if it isn't the two engineers from that object that fell in our city? I thought I would see you two sooner or later." Vox looked at Nel and then sneered. "And what do we have here? A young lady from Aquaria, none other than Nel Zelpher. A weakling from a pathetic country." Nel snarled and clenched her fists. Vox let out a chuckle as he saw Nel's reaction. Then finally Vox looked at me. "And finally we have Alex Rothrock, System Moderator." I gasped in shock as I heard him say System Moderator. How could someone from this back water planet possibly know about us?

"How do you know who I am?" I demanded.

"That's simply not for you to know." I activated my swallow.

"Answer me!" I exclaimed.

"You don't need to know the answers since you are about to die." Nel drew her dagger, Fayt unsheathed his sword, and Cliff cracked his knuckles.

"If anyone is dying today, it's you Vox!" Exclaimed Nel.

"You all have guts, I'll give you that. Very well..." Vox looked back at the two soldiers standing behind him. "Leave these scum to me, I can easily take care of them myself!" The soldiers nodded and back away to give Vox more room. Vox let out a whistle and a bigger dragon than any I have seen on this battle field flew down and landed next to Vox. He got onto it and it flew up into the air. The dragon roared and shot balls of fire at us. We all managed to dodge the attacks and we got ready to launch a counter attack. Just as I was about to jab my swallow at Vox the dragon kicked my swallow out of my hands, causing me to stumble back from the unexpected attack. Fayt, Cliff, and Nel jumped in and managed to do some damage to the dragon. While they were busy dodging attacks I pulled out my swallow and joined in the fight. Vox indeed was a tough foe. A lot of the time we were either dodging his attacks or trying to launch counter strikes and failing miserably. After awhile we started to breath heavily. Damn, at this rate I am going to have no choice but to use more of my powers but I would rather not do that in front of a bunch of beings from the Eternal Sphere. They will start to question me about my powers.

"Damn, this guy is tough," said Fayt.

"You have all fought well, but anything else wouldn't be acceptable!" Said Vox. He's not even remotely tired it seems. Damn, I really don't have a choice anymore. I was about to start using my powers when I noticed something in the sky.

"Hm? What's that?" I asked. It's too early for the Executioners to come, it couldn't be them. Suddenly a large blast of energy shot from the sky and hit the ground below Vox. As the light faded Vox seemed to have disappeared, probably instantly incinerated. It's too bad that he had to die, I wanted to know how he knew about me. Suddenly something started coming out of the sky, it was a large red ship. Not sure what it is, but it isn't good for sure.

"What the hell is that?" I asked.

"It's them," said Cliff, looking mad about something.

"Them?"

"That's the Vendeeni," explained Fayt. Oh yeah... these guys. The freaks that gave me a lot of trouble during one of the last times I had come to this galaxy.

"Vendeeni? Are they from Greeton?" Asked Nel.

"No, they aren't. Why are they here? Are they planning on conquering this world?"

"Fayt, Alex, Nel, let's get the hell out of here. I know what THEY'RE after!" Exclaimed Cliff.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Asked Fayt.

"Umm... actually I..." Cliff was cut off as a blast from one of the Vendeeni ships hit the ground nearby us.

"Gah! What's their problem?" I asked.

"Discussion can wait. Let's get out here, we are not exactly safe right now," said Nel.

"I'm with Nel on this one!"

"Your right, let's get back to Arias," said Fayt. As we headed back to Arias I looked up at the sky to see that the dragons with knights on them were flying towards the ships in attack formation. The Runological weapons were also firing off at the ships as well. Don't they understand? They can't win that way, they are only putting themselves in danger. Wait, what am I thinking? Why am I concerned about the safety of these people, these collections of data? Within a few minutes the Vendeeni started attacking the dragons and various places where the runological weapons were. All over the place was corpses and destruction. We finally arrived nearby Arias, there the Vendeeni were being relentless with their attack. Almost every time they fired, a chorus of blood curdling screams would follow after the impact of the attack. People were running around in a panic, this was a perfect example of chaos. There a man was tell people to retreat. He had short black hair and black eyes.

"Dion!" Exclaimed Fayt. Dion continued to tell people to run away and save their lives. Just then a blast from the Vendeeni ship hit the ground nearby Dion and he fell to the ground with a scream. He tried to get up but then he collapsed. The Vendeeni continued to fire randomly.

"These guys sure are trigger happy," I said.

"No... stop please," said Fayt.

"Snap out of it, Fayt! Get out of here, you'll be captured if you don't!" Exclaimed Cliff.

"Captured? What are you... wait... they are not after me are they?" Asked Fayt. Cliff didn't say anything, obviously showing that Fayt had hit the bulls eye. But why would the Vendeeni be looking for Fayt? He's just an ordinary person as far as I can tell. "Is that why the Vendeeni attacked Hyda IV, the Helre, and now Elicoor II? Was all of that my fault."

"Calm down! I... I... can explain," said Cliff trying to take control of this situation.

"No! I see now, everything is clear to me. It is all my fault!" Exclaimed Fayt starting to get a little hysterical.

"How could that be? This attack could purely be chance," I said trying to calm Fayt down before he starts to freak out even more.

"Calm down already," said Cliff as he put his hand on Fayt's shoulder. Fayt spun around and knocked Cliff's hand off of him.

"What do they want me for? Why do they want me enough to kill so many innocent people?" Demanded Fayt as his voice started to rise. Then Fayt raised his head up into the air. "Who... WHO THE HELL AM I?"

Suddenly a symbology array appeared on Fayt's forehead. Then various symbols appeared on his arms and he clutched his head. He let out a scream and once again he looked up at the sky. Now various symbols were flying across his body and the light started getting brighter. Suddenly a large symbology array appeared underneath Fayt. The next second a large angel made of symbology symbols appeared behind Fayt. The angel raised it's hands into the air and two large symbology arrays appeared above it. The light got brighter to the point where I had to shield my eyes. A pillar of light shot up towards the nearby Vendeeni ship and upon impact several more symbology arrays appeared and surrounded the Vendeeni ship. Another pillar struck the Vendeeni ship and it started glowing blue. The ship started to stretch out and slowly it disappeared without a sign of it ever being there. With a burst of light the symbology arrays disappeared. Out of nowhere came a bunch of angel feathers that disappeared as they touched the ground. Fayt was glowing with energy and he slowly sank to his knees and passed out. As he fell the light slowly faded away. There was dead silence, no one spoke a word.

"What was that?" Asked Nel.

"I never expected that his powers would have such amazing destructive capabilities," said Cliff. Words could not describe what I had just seen. There is no way that the people of the Eternal Sphere should be capable of using symbology spells that have power of THAT scale. Creating an angel out of symbology symbols, instantly destroying the ship, and then creating a bunch of angel feathers is all advanced symbology that is similar to the symbology that is the foundation of the Eternal Sphere. This goes way beyond our estimation of what they are capable of. I fell to my knees and threw up. I couldn't stop shaking, I was more than shocked at what had just happened, I was frightened.

"_Good lord, that goes way beyond anything we had predicted. If they know how to use that level of symbology then we HAVE to get the Executioners into the Eternal Sphere NOW! The worst case scenario has become even worse than we all thought, I have to tell Luther about this," _I said in my thoughts.

"Alex? Are you okay?" Asked Cliff.

"Yeah... I'm fine," I said as I slowly got up.

"Someone care to explain what exactly is going on here?" Asked Nel.

"We'll tell you later. For now we have to get out of here," said Cliff.

"Your right, let's go back to Aquios. We must report this news at once to Her Majesty."

"Okay, let's go," said Cliff as he picked up Fayt. Nel and Cliff started walking towards Arias. They stopped and looked back at me when they noticed that I wasn't following them. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah... just give me a minute," I said. Cliff nodded and he and Nel continued walking. I activated the debugging tool and turned on the communicator. Luther popped up on the screen.

"What is it, Alex? Why do you look so pale?" Asked Luther with a tone of concern in his voice.

"Luther! We have a bad situation at hand!" I exclaimed trying to remain as calm as I could.

"What's the problem?" Inquired Luther as he started to look even more interested.

"This is the problem!" I held my hand to my forehead and a sphere of energy appeared. I put it into the debugging tool, it's at times like this where being able to transfer memories is useful. "Watch that video." Luther activated it and watched the video. A look of fear appeared on his face. He fell back in his chair and was breathing heavily.

"Good lord, that's even worse than what we had predicted. That means that the worse case scenario is even worse than it was before," gasped Luther.

"That's why we have to act now. Send in the Executioners as soon as possible. We have to get rid of the Milky Way Galaxy now!"

"The Executioners need a little more work and they will be finished and ready to go. We will try to get that finished a soon as possible. But wait a second, you are still in the Milky Way Galaxy. If you can't get out of there before the Executioners come in, then even I can't guarantee your safety."

"Don't worry, I will make it out of here. Don't let the fact that I am still in here hold you back." Luther sighed.

"Very well, but let me warn you. The Executioners have been reprogrammed so that they will attack regardless of what staff member is present, except for me the Creator," said Luther.

"Understood. I will get out of here as soon as I can."

"Best of luck to you." With that, the screen went blank and I headed back into Arias. I met Cliff and Nel at the entrance.

"There you are, are you ready?" Asked Nel.

"Yeah, sorry I took so long. Let's go to this Aquios place," I said. We left Arias and headed towards Aquios.

* * *

_I was scarred on that day that Fayt's powers manifested. But I had some relief thinking that Fayt was the only one who had those kinds of powers... but I was proven wrong after we reached Aquios.

* * *

_

So how will Alex react when he finds out that Maria has special powers as well? Find out in the next chapter. Anyway, please review. I should have the next chapter done soon.


	3. Maria enters the Stage

Thank you all who reviewed. Anyway, onto the disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean.

* * *

Chapter 3: Maria enters the stage

We arrived at Aquios and put Fayt in the bed in the guest room. We sat there, waiting for him to wake up. The room was dead silent.

"This is an unexpected turn of events," said Nel.

"Yeah, it sure is," I agreed. I would never have expected that Fayt would be able to symbology on that great of a scale. Then again, how could anyone have expected that?

"Not only that, I am concerned about the battle with Vox."

"What is there to be concerned about? Vox is dead and that's all there is to it," said Cliff. Nel shook her head.

"That's not it. It's just... I have fought Vox on the battle field before but he wasn't that strong last time. That was about a year ago, no one gets that stronger within a year," said Nel with a tone of concern.

"That does seem a little odd. But I agree with Cliff. There really is no point in talking about it. Or even as much as thinking about it. Vox is dead and he isn't coming back," I said. But the truth is, even I am concerned about Vox. Somehow he knew that I was a System Moderator and somehow he knew who I was. It's too bad that he had to die because there were so many things I wanted to ask him.

"I suppose you are right." The door opened and a soldier walked in.

"Lady Nel..." Said the Soldier. Nel looked over at the soldier.

"How is Dion doing?"

"Not well," said the Soldier gravely. Oh yeah, that's right. That Dion person got badly injured by the Vendeeni.

"I see..." The soldier left and closed the door. I heard a groan and I looked over to see Fayt slowly get up. Nel looked over at Fayt as well.

"What a relief. I thought you might never wake up again," said Nel.

"What about the Vendeeni?" Asked Fayt. It didn't surprise me that he would ask that question.

"Don't worry about them, so how are you feeling?" Asked Cliff.

"I'm aching all over," grunted Fayt. He looked over at Nel. "What about Dion? How is he doing?"

"His chances aren't good..." Said Nel gravely.

"No... I am going to go see him," said Fayt. He stood up and started walking towards the door.

"Hey Fayt, don't you think you should be more concerned about yourself? You aren't exactly in tip-top shape at the moment," I said.

"I am more concerned about Dion right now," said Fayt as he opened the door and left the room.

"One of these days... he's going to end up killing himself by doing this sort of things..." I said while I shrugged.

"Yeah, most likely," said Cliff. I sat up from the chair I was sitting in and started walking out of the room. "Where are ya going?" Asked Cliff.

"I am going to take a look at this castle." I looked over at Nel. "If I may."

"I have no problem with it. Since you sided with Aquaria in that battle you have become one of our what we call: Foreign Allys. So as far as anyone in this country is concerned, you are one of us," explained Nel.

"I see." I walked out of the room and closed the door. I started looking around and saw various places like the chapel. Being here reminded me of when we were making the Eternal Sphere. I had been on the team that developed the landscape of Elicoor II. I had taken extra care into developing this planet, and so did the rest of the team. I continued looking around the castle. As I was walking down the hallway on the other side of the first floor I heard the sound of Fayt's voice.

"No! Dion!" Exclaimed Fayt. "You had your whole lives ahead of you. I failed you, Ameena, I'm so sorry!" There was dead silence. "Ameena? Ameena!" A few more seconds of silence passed but that passed when there was the sound of Fayt screaming out: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" So these two people that Fayt knew died, I didn't need to see what had happened to know that. The door opened and Fayt, a girl with long blonde hair and an outfit similar to Cliff's, Cliff, and Nel walked out of the room. Fayt looked really sad, with the death of someone you know I can understand why he would feel sad. Lately I have been able to understand what some of these people are going through. Then again, they are based on our own emotions so that's why I can understand them. I followed them back to the guest room. Fayt started complaining about how it was all his fault that this happened and Cliff tried to tell him otherwise. But that didn't do anything.

"I don't know what you are talking about, but those things... the Vendeeni... what are they?" Asked Nel. Cliff sighed.

"Very well, since you guys are part of this now I will tell you. The Vendeeni, they are..."

"We've got trouble! Another one of those ships have appeared in the sky!" Exclaimed a soldier as he ran into the room.

"What?" Exclaimed Nel.

"Isn't that the best news of today?" I asked sarcastically.

"Damn!" Cursed Cliff. He looked over at Fayt and I. "Come on you two, let's go outside!" We nodded and followed him, Nel followed us as well. We went outside on the porch outside of the audience chamber. Sure enough, another Vendeeni ship was coming down.

"Well this isn't good," I said.

"Damn! What now?" Asked Cliff.

"Cliff, you guys were able to chase away the Vendeeni before... why not do it again?" Asked Fayt.

"But..." Said Nel.

"Perhaps you should chase them away again," I said.

"It's just as I thought," said the woman with blonde hair.

"It looks like you don't remember a thing," said Cliff. Fayt looked at us like we were all lunatics.

"What are you talking about?" Now how are we going to tell Fayt: Hey Fayt, guess what? You are capable of using powers of mass destruction. It's not that much of a shocker is it? How could you tell anyone that? And how would anyone in the right mind believe it?

"Wait another one is coming!" Exclaimed Nel. I looked up and saw another ship coming, yet this one was smaller than the Vendeeni ship and it was silver. It looked more like a shuttle.

"Cliff, is it?" Asked the woman with blonde hair.

"Yup, it's them. About time." The ship fired at the Vendeeni and managed to do some damage to the ship but the Vendeeni fired as well, damaging the shuttle. The shuttle started to fly towards the ground and the Vendeeni ship retreated up into the sky. Suddenly I heard the sound of something being transported down.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," said the voice. I spun around to see a young woman with long blue hair and blue eyes.

"Took you long enough," said Cliff.

"Sorry, we had a few difficulties finding you," said the woman.

"Yeah I suppose... hey wait. Don't you think it's not a good idea to be transporting down onto a planet like this?"

"I looked over the situation a few times before coming down. Besides, now that this planet is part of this mess we don't have to hide anything anymore."

"True, but I bet that Super Square Champion of the UP3 over here would disagree with you."

"Ha, ha, very funny," said Fayt. He walked towards Cliff. "By the way, who is she?"

"Oh yeah, I am slacking in my intros. This is the leader of Quark, Maria."

"What?" Asked Fayt in disbelief.

"I'm Maria Traydor, but just call me Maria," said Maria.

"Nice to meet you, I'm..."

"I know who you are, Fayt Leingod. The only son of Dr. Robert Leingod. You were born on earth and you are 19 years old." I don't want to know how she knows all of these things about Fayt. Does she not have any hobbies or something?

"How do you know so much about me?"

"Quite simple, I did some research."

"Is someone going to explain what in the hell is going on here?" Asked Nel. "No more concealing the truth!" Nel started to look a bit mad, with all of these weird things going on her reaction is understandable.

"That is enough, Lady Nel," said a voice behind us. I turned around to see an elder woman dressed in an outfit that hinted she was of royalty. She had brownish black hair and red eyes. It would be safe to guess that she is the Queen of this country.

"But..." Nel Sighed. "Yes, Your Majesty." The Queen walked over to Maria.

"I know not who you are but I would like to hear an explanation to all of this, one that makes sense to my ears."

"Please forgive me for my rudeness your majesty. I will explain what is going on, but first I need to speak with them. We have a lot of catching up to do."

"So be it." The Queen looked over at Nel. "Show them to the Conference room."

"Yes your Majesty." We started following Nel to the Conference room.

"Your not from this world are you?" Asked Maria as I almost walked past her. I looked back at her.

"How did you know?"

"You don't look like your from this world. The clothes you are wearing are completely different from what would be expected to be seen on a planet like this. Besides, that thing that you have strapped to your back looks more like an extremely advanced weapon."

"I'm a dead give away, huh?" Maria grinned and nodded.

"Yeah you are. So what are you doing on this planet anyway?" Asked Maria as we started walking.

"Err..." I hesitated for a moment and started talking. "I was on Styx with a few other people. We were investigating the planet, trying to find any sign of the ancient civilization that once existed on that planet. However, we were getting low on supplies that would help us cross the tough terrain. So I decided to head to the nearest place that would have the things we need."

"Why did you go to Elicoor II? This isn't the place you should have gone to."

"If you would let me finish. As I was saying, I was heading for a place that I could find the supplies we needed. But I had some engine troubles and my ship ended up crash landing here."

"I see. Well then, once Quark settles a few problems, we will give you a ride to Styx. Plus we will give you anything you need for your investigation." Alright, I have a trip secured.

"Thank you very much. But I do not need supplies, during the time I have been on this planet I checked some of the maps I made of Styx while I was there. I found an alternate route that will lead to an area that we believe has ruins of this ancient civilization."

"Don't mention it, just helping out a person in need," said Maria. We finally arrived at the conference room and Nel left us. I was relieved that Maria believed my story. If things go well and the Executioners don't come until I walk through the Time Gate then I won't have to tell anyone anything about where I really come from.

From the conversation that went on in the conference room I learned that Fayt was genetically modified by his own father. This same man also genetically modified Maria too. She showed off her ability to manipulate the structure of matter. One was bad enough, but two are even worse. Maria especially is currently more dangerous than Fayt. She actually has some control over her powers. Fayt on the other hand does not. If they are allowed to gain knowledge of how to use their powers it could prove to be a disaster. Fayt agreed to help Maria in rescuing his father from the Vendeeni. Then they talked about how we were going to get off the planet. With the Vendeeni lurking around it would be difficult. We decided to use Aquaria's special weapon as a diversion to distract the Vendeeni while we transport off of the planet. But before we could use the weapon we had to get permission from the Queen. The other thing I learned was that the woman with blonde hair was Mirage. We headed over to the Audience Chamber. Maria, Cliff, Fayt, and Mirage took the time to explain their story. Then I told mine about how I had come her by accident.

"You say you are from another world? Nonsense, stop wasting Her Majesty's time!" Scolded the man standing to the Queen's right. He had a cold, stern face and he had black eyes and long black hair.

"Silence Lasselle," said the Queen. She looked back over at us. "Will it be possible to fight the Vendeeni with the Thunder Arrow?"

"It's not enough to defeat them, but it is enough to distract them long enough for us to leave this planet and fix this situation," said Fayt.

"Very well then, we shall lend you the Thunder Arrow."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," said Maria.

"But what are we going to do about the range? I doubt it will be able to hit the Vendeeni since they are really high up in the air," said Cliff.

"That's our biggest problem," I said. If I could summon an Executioner and have it attack the Vendeeni ship then we would have no trouble of getting off this planet. But since they aren't completed yet I can't exactly do that. Besides, that sort of thing is beyond my powers in the Eternal Sphere.

"We have a serious crisis!" Exclaimed a female soldier as she ran into the audience chamber.

"Watch your tone!" Said Lasselle.

"Someone has infiltrated Kaddan!"

"WHAT?"

"Who is it?" Demanded the Queen.

"It was one of those ships. It landed next to the shrine. The runologists are trying to fight them but they can't do anything against the weapons the intruders wield. These strange weapons glow and they shoot out light!" Explained the female soldier, trying to be as calm as possible.

"Those would be disrupter rifles..." Said Maria.

"But why are they going after Kaddan? What about us?" Asked Cliff. Maria was silent for a moment.

"Your Majesty, which way is Kaddan?" Asked Maria as she looked over in the direction of the Queen.

"To the East of Aquios," replied the Queen. Maria pulled out a device that looked like a scanner. She aimed it towards the East and she started pressing various buttons on it.

"I see..." Said Maria with a tone of interest in her voice. She signaled for Mirage to come over to her. I walked over as well, mainly out of curiosity.

"What in the world?" Asked Mirage. I read what was on the screen. It said: 'Unidentifiable wave length'.

"What's wrong?" Asked Cliff.

"There is a wave length coming from Kaddan. It's beyond our ability to identify," answered Maria. Maria looked over at Nel. "What's in Kaddan?"

"The holy relic of our country, the Sacred Orb," replied Nel. Sacred Orb... could it be?

"Maria... may I see your scanner for a sec?" I asked.

"Sure, here you go," said Maria as she handed it to me. I pulled back my left sleeve and activated my debugging tool. I selected wave length identification and put the scanner next to the screen of the debugging tool. On my screen came the message: 'Wave Length Identified'. The sound pattern changed from static to a deep humming tone. No question about it now. This really is THE Sacred Orb. The debugging tool that I had created for this country.

"Here," I said as I handed the scanner back to Maria. She took it and gave me a confused look.

"What did you just do?"

"I converted the wave length into a format that can be played on your scanner."

"Convert wave lengths? How's that possible?" Asked Fayt.

"It's quite simple, I used this device that I made. It can do various things, like convert wave lengths so they can be played on any scanner."

"Your saying that wrist guard has the ability to identify wave lengths that for some reason all the up to date scanners can't?" Asked Maria seeming completely stunned.

"Yeah, that's what I am saying in a nutshell," I said.

"Man, if you put that on the market you would make a lot of money," said Cliff.

"But why would they be after the Sacred Orb?" Asked Fayt as he brought us back to our original subject.

"Based on the fact that we couldn't identify the wave length it is clearly an O.P.A.," said Maria.

"So you are saying that the Vendeeni are after the Sacred Orb?" Asked Nel.

"I believe that's the case. If you look back on history, anyone who obtained an O.P.A. gained incredible power. It goes without saying, they'd want it."

"_But actually, the people who obtained power from those Debugging Tools, or O.P.A.s as you call them were actually people from our universe who had been sent into your galaxy to maintain balance," _I said in my thoughts.

"That's terrible! We can't let them take our Sacred Orb! We must send soldiers to Kaddan this instant!" Exclaimed Lasselle.

"_Damned straight, I won't let those Vendeeni bastards touch MY Sacred Orb, which I made!" _

"Assembly your forces and head to Kaddan at once," said the Queen as she looked over at Nel.

"Yes, Your Majesty," said Nel.

"But the soldiers don't stand a chance against the Vendeeni equipped as they are," said Fayt.

"We are aware of this, but we have no choice," said the Queen.

"Then I will go to Kaddan," I said as I took a step forward.

"I will go too. It's my fault the Vendeeni are here to begin with," said Fayt.

"No, Fayt. Just the two of you going would be suicide. If you die, then I have come here for nothing," said Maria.

"She's right Fayt. The Vendeeni came here for you. If you go there, you will only be playing into their hands," I said. I walked past everyone. "I will go on my own, I can take care of this myself."

"The same thing applies to you. Going alone would be suicide. I don't care if you die or not, but it would be foolish to throw your life away. What about your friends on Styx?" I sighed, I could take care of this by myself but I can't tell them why I could take care of this by myself. I can't afford to tell them the truth about me and where I come from, or the truth about their Universe.

"Very well, if you guys want to come, then so be it," I said. Nel looked back at the Queen.

"We have decided Your Majesty. We will go to Kaddan and stop the Vendeeni from stealing the Sacred Orb," said Nel.

"Best of luck to all of you. I will allow you to use the secret passage that will take you directly to Kaddan," said the Queen.

"Yes, Your Majesty." We left the Audience chamber and Nel led us to the Chapel. She stood in front of the statue in the front of the Chapel. Suddenly, Nel's finger started glowing. She moved it in some sort of sequence and an array of symbology symbols appeared in front of her. Then another one appeared on the metal grate on the floor that sat above the flowing water. The metal grate slid back and a stair case appeared. They have the ability to seal off passages, another thing I should report to Luther when I get the chance. We proceeded down the stair case and into the caverns beneath the castle. I looked around at the abandoned passage ways.

"So this place will lead us to Kaddan?" I asked.

"That's right. It will take us underneath the lake and directly to the shrine. It will save us a lot of time," said Nel.

"That's a good thing," said Fayt.

"Right, we have to stop the Vendeeni as quickly as we can," said Maria.

"And the one way to do that is: Less talking, more walking," suggested Cliff.

"Your right, let's go," said Nel. We started walking through this cavern towards Kaddan. Finally we reached a large room with a stair case leading to a door. Looks like this is our destination. Suddenly I sensed something... a summon program. Oh yeah, now I remember. I had created this program to protect the Sacred Orb... not that it did any good.

"Wait," I said as I put my arm in front of everyone to bar their path.

"What is it?" Asked Fayt.

"There is a summon circle here, if we get any closer a monster will appear and attack us," I explained as I looked over at everyone.

"A summon circle? I don't sense anything. What is a summon circle anyway?" Asked Nel.

"It doesn't surprise me that you can't sense the summon circle here. Very few can." I snapped with my right hand and the summon circle appeared, spun around, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Alex, can I ask you a question?" Asked Maria.

"Go ahead," I replied.

"How do you know all of this? You aren't from this planet. There is no way you could know of something that Nel didn't know about. Plus you were able to identify the wave length of the Sacred Orb. Just who exactly are you?"

"Simple question, I am me," I said with a grin. Everyone gave me an annoyed look.

"That's not what I asked you, idiot," said Maria.

"Heh, what a smart ass," said Cliff.

"We'll talk about this later. First let's take care of the Vendeeni," said Fayt. We went inside the Shrine of Kaddan and started heading towards the room where the Sacred Orb was. Along the way we found various corpses of soldiers from Aquaria and Runologists. I don't know why but I find it sickening that the Vendeeni would do something like this. Could I actually be starting to see these collections of data as equal, real people? We finally arrived at the door to the room with the Sacred Orb. We cautiously opened the door and rushed in.

"Get away from the Orb!" Exclaimed Fayt. The four Vendeeni soldiers turned around to face us. This was the first time I had seen a Vendeeni Soldier. They had the oddest sense of fashion and they covered their faces with a mask. You could still see their eyes which were slitted like those of a shark.

"Wait a minute, isn't that the Leingod kid?" Asked one of the Vendeeni soldiers.

"Yeah, it is. Today sure is our lucky day. We got this O.P.A. and now the boy," replied one of the Vendeeni Soldiers.

"Not happening!" Exclaimed Cliff.

"You got a bit greedy, let's get them!" Exclaimed Maria as she pulled out a gun. I activated my swallow and got ready to fight.

"Get your hands off the Sacred Orb, NOW!" I yelled.

"Don't tell us what to do!" Shouted one of the Vendeeni soldiers as they pulled out their disrupter rifle and shot at me. I blocked the blast with one of the blades of the swallow and sent it flying into the nearby wall.

"Like that will ever hit me," I said. We charged in and fought the Vendeeni, and of course we won.

"The Sacred Orb is safe, what a relief," said Nel.

"Yeah, your right," I said in agreement.

"Let's go back to Aquios," said Fayt. We went back to the cavern and soon we were back in the castle and in the Audience Chamber.

"Thank you for your help. We can't thank you enough," said the Queen.

"It's no problem," said Fayt.

"Now, we are back to square one. What are we going to do about the range problem?" I asked.

"If you had the ability to carry the weapon in the air, then range would no longer be an issue. Am I right?" Asked the Queen.

"That's right," said Maria.

"But we don't have any means of carrying the Thunder arrow into the sky," said Nel.

"Then we shall request cooperation from Airyglyph," said the Queen. Everyone looked shocked that the Queen would suggest something like that, especially Lasselle.

"A-are you serious, Your Majesty? How can we trust that they won't betray us?" Demanded Lasselle.

"I do not believe that this will happen. Airyglyph has suffered a lot of damage from the Vendeeni, we do not have the time for foolish struggles." The Queen looked over at Nel. "I would like you to go to Airyglyph and explain the situation."

"Yes Your Majesty," said Nel with a nod.

"I'll go too," said Cliff. Cliff looked over at Nel. "Don't you think he would trust me more? And I don't think that someone from this planet could explain the whole situation as well as I can."

"Very well, you two will go to Airyglyph," said the Queen.

"What about the rest of us?" Asked Fayt.

"You will wait for Nel and Cliff to Return," said the Queen. Maria looked over at Fayt.

"Fayt, can we talk outside?" Asked Maria.

"Sure," said Fayt. They walked outside, and now only Mirage and I were left in the Audience Chamber. Now would be a good time to report everything I have seen to Luther. I walked outside of the castle and went into an area where there was few people. I activated my communicator and Luther appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Alex. What's your status?" Asked Luther.

"I guess you were expecting me to make another report," I said.

"I figured that you would probably find something else to report. So what have you found?"

"I have found another individual who is capable of using advanced symbology. Unlike the other one, this one's powers seem to be based on manipulating the structure of matter," I said.

"Like your powers?"

"Well not quite, she hasn't attained the level that I am at. She is also able to control her powers a little bit," I explained.

"I see... anything else?"

"Yeah, it seems that these people on this planet have the ability to seal off passage ways via symbology."

"They are more skilled with Symbology than we thought. Is there anything else?"

"No, there isn't."

"Very well then. I recommend that you try to pick up the pace of getting out of the Eternal Sphere if possible. The Executioners will be coming in soon."

"Understood, I will do my best." Luther nodded and the screen went blank. I sighed and looked up at the sky. I looked down at the ground beneath the platform I was on to see Fayt and Maria talking about something. I started to feel worried, did they overhear me? No, no I'm fine. It looks like they are too busy talking about whatever they are talking about. It's better that they not find out the truth. Let them be ignorant till the Executioners come to get rid of them. My look changed to a frown. _"It's better that they die. Their kind don't deserve to..." _

"_Can you really say that after what you have seen of this universe? " _Asked a voice. I looked around but I saw no one.

"Who's there?" I demanded.

"_Can you really condemn you r comrades to death?" _

"They are not my comrades! I am just using them to get back to my universe!"

"_Do you really mean that? Can you really just cast aside the things you have seen in this universe?" _

"I... I..." I couldn't say anything and I went silent. The voice started laughing.

"_Ha, ha, ha, ha, as I thought. You can't practice what you preach." _

"Shut up!"

"_It seems you still need to think over your actions and what you say. We shall converse again someday." _

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" There was no reply. "Damn! He ran off!"

"Who are you talking about?" Asked a voice behind me. I spun around to see Mirage standing behind me.

"Oh, it's nothing," I replied with a shrug.

"Talking to yourself isn't a good idea. It tends to freak people out," said Mirage.

"Yeah, Cliff told me that once. I guess I will have to watch myself," I said with a chuckle.

* * *

_I was a little concerned about the voice that had spoken to me. What was it's motives and objectives anyway? At the time I was mostly worried about getting off Elicoor II and getting a ride to Styx in time before the Executioners come. Little did I know that my problems at the time were nothing compared to what I was going to face in the future...

* * *

_

What will happen next? Find out in the next chapter. Anyway, please review.


	4. The Peace Conference

Thank you all who reviewed. Anyway, onto the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean. I never have and I never will.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Peace Conference

I decided to sit on the balcony nearby and watch the scenery. I looked back down at Maria and Fayt who were still talking and this time, since I was bored, I got closer to hear what they were saying.

"Yeah, so what do you think of Alex?" Asked Fayt.

"I really don't know what I think of him. He is quite the enigma," replied Maria.

"That's for sure. He seems like one of us but at the same time, he is some how different."

"Yeah. He was able to identify a wave length that we couldn't, he was able to dispel that 'summon circle', and I have never seen a weapon like the one he wields before." Fayt nodded.

"Same here. I've never heard of or seen a weapon that can block a blast from a disrupter rifle." I slowly walked away having lost interest in their conversation. Okay, maybe I should be a little more careful from now on when I use something from where I come from. My swallow I have no choice but to use, but everything else will have to be used sparingly. I can't afford to lose any trust. About 3 hours had passed and now I was bored out of my mind.

"You sure look bored," commented a voice behind me. I turned around to see Cliff and Nel.

"Yeah, so how did it go?" I asked as I got up.

"You'll hear the details inside," said Nel. I followed them to the Audience Chamber and soon everybody was gathered back together.

"According to the report, the King of Airyglyph accepted out story at face value," said the Queen.

"Yes Your Majesty. But he also said that he wished to speak with Your Majesty directly," said Nel.

"Directly? We will never allow a hostile party into these castle walls!" Exclaimed Lasselle. I never thought it was possible for someone to be so annoying, but Lasselle proved me wrong.

"I am sure that he doesn't mean to come here. Did he mention the place of discussion?" Asked the Queen.

"Yes, he said the place was the round table at the ancient ruins of Mosel," replied Nel.

"Mosel? They may have air dragons but we have to walk!" Said Lasselle with a tone of annoyance.

"Did he say anything about body guards?" Asked the Queen.

"No, which means we can do anything we like," said Nel.

"Then you shall be my body guards."

"Take good care of Her Majesty!" Exclaimed Lasselle.

"Will do," said Fayt. We left Aquios and headed to a place called Peterny, a large, busy town. From there we went down the Sanmite Steppes. As we started to cross the bridge I sensed something. I pulled out the handle of my swallow and got ready to activate it.

"What's wrong?" Asked Maria.

"Something's coming. Be careful everyone, who knows what it could possibly be!" I exclaimed. This wasn't a program made by the Sphere Company, this was something else. A glowing array with an odd design on it appeared on the ground. Then, someone slowly started rising out. I gasped as I saw who it was. "Impossible!"

"It can't be!" Exclaimed Nel.

"No way!" Exclaimed Fayt.

"Vox?" Exclaimed Cliff. It was true, it really was Vox. But how?

"Well, not quite the welcome that I expected but it will do," said Vox.

"Who is that?" Asked Maria.

"Someone who should be dead," I replied.

"You of all people should know that life and death don't have any meaning in this universe. Or maybe you are starting to believe other wise," said Vox. How does he know all of this? How does he know that this universe is just a simulator?

"Shut up! Not another word!" I exclaimed as I activated my swallow.

"You won't be going to that sissy peace conference," said Vox as he rose his hand up. Suddenly several monsters appeared behind him and he vanished. Everyone got out their weapons and were ready to fight. We charged towards the enemy. The one I was charging towards looked like the combination of a human and a dragon of some sort. It had the body structure of a human but then it had large, sharp teeth and claws. Large horns were coming out of it's head. It lashed out at me with it's claws. I dodged both of it's attacks and cut it in half. I looked around to see that all of the monsters were being fought by everyone else. All of them but one which was slowly walking towards the Queen. The next second it started to charge. I held out my hand and a bunch of pillars of earth raised in front of the monster and it ran right into them. I took that time to charge over to the monster while it was still dazed. I brought my swallow down upon it, killing it. I deactivated my swallow and walked around the pillars to see if the Queen was safe.

"Are you alright, Your Majesty?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for your help," said the Queen. I looked around to see that everyone had finished off the monster they were fighting. They had noticed the pillars sticking out of the ground and they walked over.

"What exactly happened here?" Asked Cliff.

"I raised a few pillars of earth to block that one monster from attacking Her Majesty," I said with a grin.

"How did you do that?" Asked Maria.

"It's just something I can do," I said with the same grin on my face. Maria groaned.

"I should have known that you would say something like that."

"Let's keep going," said Nel. Nel had a look of concern on her face.

"What's up?" Asked Cliff.

"I am still trying to figure out how Vox is still walking around. Wasn't he killed by the Vendeeni? And how did he summon those monsters?"

"Who knows? Let's just hope that he doesn't show up again," said Maria.

"Anyway, let's go," said Nel. We continued walking to Mosel. After a little while we finally got to Mosel. Unfortunately, Mosel is a desert with super high temperatures.

"Why does it have to be so hot?" I asked as we were walking.

"Because it can," said Maria, directing that comment at me. I started laughing.

"What goes around comes around, huh?" I asked.

"Ten fold sometimes," said Maria with a grin.

"So true," I said. We continued walking across the desert, with occasional breaks at the nearest oasis and fighting a nearby monster here and there. We finally made it to the ancient ruins of Mosel. After some exploration, we finally found the room with the round table.

"Thank you for coming, Romeria," said the King of Airyglyph. The King of Airyglyph had somewhat long brown hair and brown eyes. To his right was an old man with short, greyish white hair. His clothing suggested that he held a high position in Airyglyph's government or something like that. "It's been a long time."

"Yes, it has been Arzei," said the Queen as she sat down in the chair facing the King.

"So what took you so long? Did you run into any trouble?"

"You could say that..." I said.

"What sort of trouble?" Asked the King as he looked over at me.

"Someone who we thought died appeared in front of our very eyes. Somehow, Vox is still alive." The King's face changed to a look of shock.

"What? How can that be? I had heard reports that he had died."

"That's what we thought," said Cliff.

"He's completely changed. He has gained some sort of weird powers and now he can summon monsters," I said.

"I see... this is truly an odd chain of events," said the King as if he was deep in thought. "So tell me, who exactly are we facing? I heard your agent's explanation earlier, but it made no sense."

"I felt the same," said the Queen. The Queen looked over at Fayt and the others. "Would you explain it to us one more time?" Fayt and Cliff nodded and they started re-explaining everything to the King and Queen.

"I find it rather hard to believe, but I guess we don't have a choice," said the King. He looked over at us. "Turning these outsiders over to them is another option, is it not?" A chill ran down my spine, if they were to turn us in to the Vendeeni all of my plans would be ruined and I would never get out of the Eternal Sphere before the Executioners come.

"That would have been an option earlier but no longer," said the Queen. I felt relieved at hearing this, so maybe things are still running on course.

"And why is that?"

"The enemy attacked the Shrine of Kaddan."

"What? They attacked Kaddan?" Exclaimed the King as a look of shock appeared on his face.

"Kaddan doesn't have anything to do with these outsiders. Leaving us with only one option..."

"Drive out the enemy," finished the King.

"That's right, so what do you think we should do?"

"According to our info, at present this 'Thunder Arrow' would be too much for a single air dragon to carry into the air."

"How about more than one dragon?" Suggested Maria.

"That too would be difficult," said the King.

"So is there any way of solving this problem?" I asked.

"Yes, we just need a bigger air dragon," said the old man.

"Where could we find such a beast?" Asked Nel.

"In the Urssa Lava caves. They are near the Bequerel Mines. Within the Urssa Lava caves is an immense air dragon known as the Marquis."

"So all we have to do is go in there and capture it, right?" Asked Cliff.

"That's right. But mistaking the Marquis as a mere air dragon might be the last thing you ever do. It will not be easy to deal with," said the King.

"We have no choice, it's the only way to solve this problem with the Vendeeni," I said.

"Do you have any objections Arzei?" Asked the Queen.

"I only request that a representative from Airyglyph be in their party," replied the King.

"Who would you have go? Surely not Woltar."

"No, I was thinking of someone else. I was thinking of sending Albel."

"Then it is settled, this Albel will join their party." The Queen looked over at Fayt. "If that is alright with you?"

"I don't mind but..." Said Fayt as his voice trailed off.

"The problem is going to be what Albel thinks," finished Cliff.

"Albel will be waiting for you at the royal city of Airyglyph, you can meet him there," said the King. The Queen nodded and looked over at Nel.

"You shall escort me to Peterny, Clair will escort me back to Aquios from there," said the Queen. Nel gave a quick nod.

"Yes Your Majesty." We left the hall of the round table and headed back to Peterny. Clair took the Queen back to Aquios while we went to Airyglyph. Airyglyph was a land covered in snow, not to mention that it was really cold. Man, how can people live in temperatures this low? We finally arrived at the castle and Woltar, the old man, was waiting for us. To my surprise we were escorted down to the dungeon. Woltar opened a door and there was a man attached to the wall. He wore purple clothing that didn't cover his lower torso. On one of his arms was a powerful looking gauntlet. He had long black hair with blonde streaks in the front.

"He's been charged with treason. But the one who brought the charges against him is no longer off this world... or so we thought. But he is no longer with Airyglyph," explained Woltar.

"Vox, right?" Asked Cliff. Woltar nodded and walked over to Albel.

"I've got an errand for you, boy." Albel looked up and opened his eyes, revealing blood red eyes. He was quite the intimidating person, not to mention that based on the conversation between Woltar and Albel it seemed like he wasn't that nice of a guy. As he slowly walked over to us, he looked straight at me with his creepy eyes.

"What the hell are you starring at, fool?" Asked Albel.

"Nothing," I said.

"Whatever, maggot." Albel walked past me.

"I don't like this anymore than you do, Albel. But we have no choice," said Nel.

"Unfortunately, you are right." We left Airyglyph and went to the Bequerel mountains. As we were walking up the path I looked over at the others.

"So somewhere in these mountains is this Urssa lava caves place, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, there is a place in one of the caves that leads to the Urssa lava caves," said Nel.

"A cave... inside a cave?" I asked as I tried to picture something like that.

"There is another cavern inside the cave. What is so hard to understand about that?" Asked Maria.

"Nothing, I just find it weird to find something inside itself." I had never worked on this part of making Elicoor II so I didn't know anything about the terrain. We continued walking and fighting the occasional monster in our path until we finally arrived at this cave that Nel was speaking about.

* * *

_By the time we had reached the cave I was starting to feel a little worried about the Executioners. I could already sense a strong energy source gathering in the deep regions of space far away from Elicoor II. This energy source belonged to none other than the first Executioner fleet which was slowly starting to appear in the Eternal Sphere. I had to get out of the Eternal Sphere, I had to speak with Luther. "Maybe I could convince Luther to stop the Executioners." That was what I was thinking at the time.

* * *

_

Will Alex be able to get out of the Eternal Sphere? Can he convince Luther to stop the Executioners? And how is it that Vox has returned? The answers are coming soon, anyway please review.


	5. Departure

Thank you all who reviewed! Anyway, you know the routine by now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean.

* * *

Chapter 5: Departure

We finally arrived at the Urssa lava caves. Just like the Mosel dunes, it was really hot.

"Man, why do dragons have to pick places like this for their lair?" I groaned.

"That's a good question. You'd think they would want to go somewhere that wasn't so hot," said Cliff.

"Just shut up and stop pondering the way a dragon's mind works, fools," said Albel as he walked past us. I sighed and Cliff shrugged.

"Who shoved the sword up his ass?" I asked.

"This is just Albel being himself. I'm surprised you haven't figured that out by now since we have been traveling together for a few hours now," said Fayt.

"I don't know, Fayt. Alex here is kind of slow. It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't figure it out by now," said Maria. Everyone except Albel and I started laughing.

"Hey! That was uncalled for!" I exclaimed.

"You bring it upon yourself by asking dumb questions," said Maria with a grin on her face.

"I guess you have a point." We continued searching for the Marquis, after a lot of difficulty and several battles we finally found a door.

"A door?" Asked Cliff.

"This must be where the Marquis is," said Nel.

"There's only one way to find out," said Fayt as he opened the door. It seems like Nel was right, inside the next room was the Marquis. As we got closer to him I let out a whistle.

"The King of Airyglyph said that the Marquis was big... but I didn't imagine he would be THIS big," I said. The Marquis was towering above us, not even our height combined would equal the size of this dragon. The Marquis sure is lucky that this room is really big too.

"This has got to be the biggest dragon I have ever seen," said Fayt.

"But it looks like we are going to have to wait for this thing to wake up," said Cliff. Sure enough, the dragon was asleep. I stepped forward.

"All we have to do is speak really loudly and it should wake up," I said.

"That's not a good idea. We should wait for him to wake up," said Nel.

"But who knows when that is going to be?"

"That' won't be a problem," said Fayt. Nel and I looked over at him.

"Why's that?"

"Look." I looked back over at the Marquis and saw that it had opened it's eyes. It let out a loud roar and flapped it's wings.

"Who dares disturb my sleep?" Asked the Marquis.

"Whoa, it talks?" Exclaimed Cliff.

"Another ill-mannered human..." The Marquis' voice trailed off as he looked at me. He suddenly sniffed the air and brought his head a little bit closer to us. "Wait... who are you? There is something different about you from the rest of the humans here right now."

"What do you mean?" I asked although I knew very well that the Marquis was somehow aware that I wasn't of this universe.

"It's hard to describe but I can sense that you are different somehow. So tell me, why are you all here?" Nel bowed.

"Your excellency, I am Nel Zelpher from Aquaria. We seek your excellencies aid," said Nel.

"A maiden from Aquaria... speak your purpose."

"Yes, your excellency. This world is under attack by a mysterious force and we need your excellencies aid to stop it."

"I sensed the restlessness outside, what do you need my aid for?"

"We need Your Excellency to carry the weapon Aquaria has made to fight this threat." The Marquis let out a roar.

"IMBECILES! Did you really think that I would acquiesce to a request like that? DO NOT INSULT ME! I am great and you are nothing!"

"We will not leave until you agree to help us."

"I could not care less."

"Forget it Nel. We are going to have to smack this one around before he will listen," said Cliff as he slammed his fists together.

"I agree with that," said Albel.

"Your Excellency, is there no other way?" Asked Fayt.

"None," said the Marquis. We pulled out our weapons.

"Then we have no choice, but to force you to listen!"

"You are free to try, convince me of your worth and I shall listen to all you have to say," said the Marquis. We started fighting the Marquis, after awhile we finally managed to defeat it. The Marquis fell to the ground. "To be defeated by humans... how humiliating," groaned the dragon.

"You will keep your word, right?" Asked Maria. The Marquis slowly got up.

"Though it is humiliating to serve your kind, I can't break my word. I have no choice."

"Alright then, let's go back to Aquios," said Nel.

"You may ride on my back small but powerful humans. I shall take you anywhere and bear whatever you desire," said the Marquis. We got onto the back of the Marquis.

"So what's your name?" Asked Fayt.

"Call me Crosell," said the Marquis.

"Okay, Crosell, take us to Aquios."

"As you wish." Crosell started slowly rising in the air and out of the chamber. Soon we were up in the sky and Crosell shot off towards Aquios.

"Wow! This is so cool! Everything looks so small and the sky is so close!" I exclaimed as I looked up at the sky. Suddenly my vision started going up further into the atmosphere and into space. It continued to zoom off into the stars until I saw a huge fleet of Executioners. They let out a roar and continued zooming off towards their location. After that my sight was thrown back to Elicoor II. I jolted back and looked around.

"Alex? What's wrong?" Asked Fayt.

"One moment you are babbling like an idiot and the next your eyes go blank and you suddenly jolt back to reality. What the hell is wrong with you?" Asked Albel.

"It's... it's nothing," I said.

"Sounds like you had a vision of some sort. What did you see?" Asked Crosell. At this point I figured it wouldn't hurt explaining what I saw. If I played my cards right they wouldn't see the Executioners and I would be able to convince Luther into stopping them. I took a deep breath.

"I saw a place somewhere deep in space, there was a fleet of dragon like creatures flying off to somewhere."

"Sounds like a bad omen," said Maria.

"That is what it seems like," said Crosell. So they have come at last, they are a lot earlier than I expected. Then again, I had been sensing their presence lately but the fact that they came in so quickly means that I don't have much time. Crosell continued to fly to Aquios. When we arrived one question rose up: who was going to be on the thunder arrow balcony? The question was answered by Crosell who said that only us who asked him for his help would be on the balcony. Then we sat around waiting for the thunder arrow to be attacked to Crosell. Suddenly my debugging tool started vibrating and emitting a beep sound. I walked over to a place where there was very few people and I activated it. A screen of Luther popped up.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The Executioners arrived in the Milky Way a short while ago. How close are you to Styx?" Asked Luther.

"I'm still on Elicoor II," I said. Luther started to look shocked and slightly annoyed.

"What the hell have you been doing? Don't tell me that you are getting involved in affairs that don't concern you."

"No, no, that's not it. It's just that we are having a few difficulties with getting off this planet. You see, there are these Vendeeni battle ships blocking our way out, and we have come up with a plan to get rid of them. But I have doubts that it will work."

"I see... well then, I will do what I can." The screen went blank. I deactivated my debugging tool and lowered my head. Could I possibly convince Luther to stop the Executioners, he tends to be a little bit stubborn once he decides something. Now that I think about it, Luther knew about the use of symbology for awhile yet he didn't do anything about it. But suddenly he orders us to make the Executioners. Somehow, something in this picture isn't fitting together. I looked back up and I saw Maria walking towards me.

"Alex, it's time," said Maria. I got up and we walked over to Crosell.

"So your flagship has arrived?" I asked.

"Yeah, and now the Vendeeni are coming as well," said Maria.

"I see..." We got onboard Crosell and he flew off into the air. The Quark Flagship, the Diplo, was flying towards us. The Vendeeni weren't far behind. We had managed to score a few hits on the Vendeeni ship but soon they caught onto our plan. They started flying towards the Diplo.

"_Okay Luther, now would be a good time to do whatever you are planning to do," _I said in my thoughts. Suddenly a large blast of energy came out of nowhere and destroyed both the Vendeeni ships. Nice Luther, right at the last minute too. There was dead silence on the platform.

"What the?" Asked Fayt.

"What was that?" Asked Cliff. Maria pulled out her communicator.

"Marietta, are you okay?" Asked Maria.

"Yeah, we're fine. Did you see that?" Asked Marietta.

"Yes, can you give us any info about it?"

"Hold on a second, here. What?"

"What is it?"

"That blast of energy had an energy magnitude of 3.2!"

"Magnitude 3.2?" Exclaimed Cliff.

"How can that be? Even the latest Federation Battle ships can only emit a magnitude of 2 tops!" Exclaimed Fayt.

"We have detected more blasts, one of them is packing an energy magnitude exceeding 4."

"Exceeding 4? Where are they headed?" Asked Maria.

"EARTH!" Exclaimed Marietta. Damn, I knew Luther wouldn't just help me. If he was going to use this method then he wouldn't just help me out, he would go for other targets as well.

"Let's go back to Aquios!" Said Fayt. As we landed back in Aquios and assembled out on the balcony outside of the throne room, we said our goodbyes to the King of Airyglyph and the Queen of Aquaria. Fayt had apologized for the trouble we caused, but the King and Queen said that this had benefitted their countries. Fayt looked around for Albel.

"Huh? Where's Albel?" Asked Fayt.

"He left already, said there was no longer a need for him to be here," explained Woltar.

"Oh I see, I wanted to say good bye," said Fayt.

"We will tell him for you," said the King.

"Thank you." Maria's Communicator started beeping.

"Captain, we are ready to transport you up," said Marietta.

"Alright, be ready to transport five people up the Diplo," said Maria.

"Huh? Five? I only counted four, who else is going up with you guys?"

"We met someone else who is not of this planet."

"O-okay, we are ready whenever you are." Maria turned off her communicator and put it away.

"Warrior with brown hair," said a gruff voice behind us. We turned around to see Crosell looking directly at me.

"Yes?" I asked.

"What is your name?" Asked Crosell.

"My name is Alex Rothrock."

"Alex Rothrock, I gave more thought to what I said to you when you were at my lair. I understand now why you seem so different." Had Crosell figured out that I wasn't from the Eternal Sphere? "What I sensed about you that made you different was not your clothing or your weapon. What I sensed about you is your fate."

"My fate?"

"Yes, one day you will have to make a choice that will determine if this world and every other world among the stars will be saved or destroyed." Saved or destroyed? Was he talking about if I would be able to convince Luther to stop the Executioners or not? Or had Crosell picked up something that I was yet to learn about?

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"I do not know the details, that is all I can say." I looked down at the ground.

"I see." We all stepped back towards the edge of the balcony.

"Farewell," said Nel. We nodded and suddenly we were transported up to the Diplo. The transportation in this universe was not as smooth as transportation in my universe. After I was transported I felt somewhat disoriented, it was like being broken up into millions of pieces and coming back together the next second. In front of us was a man with gold brown hair and wearing a fancy looking outfit.

"Welcome back captain! I'm so happy you made it back safely!" Exclaimed the man.

"We don't have time to chat. So tell me, have you been able to get any more info about those beams of light?" Asked Maria.

"Oh, yeah. We found out that the blasts came from neither Aldian, Federation, or Vendeeni forces."

"How did you figure that out?" The people of the Eternal Sphere are smarter than I gave them credit for. They were able to figure out that it was from an unknown third party so quickly.

"Based on tapped transmissions from the Federation, Vendeeni, and Aldians. We figured out that all three groups are under attack by a third party."

"Who?" Asked Cliff.

"We don't know yet."

"Anyway, let's go to the bridge," said Maria.

"Who is that guy?" I asked.

"That's Lieber, a member of Quark," explained Cliff.

"Well I knew the part that he was a member of Quark. Why else would he be on this ship?"

"By the way Captain, who is the strangely dressed person?" Asked Lieber.

"That's Alex, he is part of a research team from Styx," said Maria.

"Is that a new fashion or something?"

"Who knows? It might be, the galaxy is a big place after all." We arrived at the bridge and everyone stood up and saluted Maria.

"I'm back people, we are behind schedule in rescuing Dr. Leingod. Proceed to point S317!" Maria sat in her seat and we sat in any seat that was available.

"Mirage, take us out of orbit with one quarter thrust," said Maria.

"Roger, taking us out of orbit with one quarter thrust," said Mirage. The ship started vibrating a little bit and within less then a minute we were out of the atmosphere of Elicoor II and in space. "Out of orbit," said Mirage.

"Alright, set a course for S317."

"Roger."

"S317?" Asked Fayt.

"At those coordinates is a moon that is cleverly disguised but it is actually has a Vendeeni base on it. We believe that is where your father is," explained Maria.

"Captain, we are receiving a transmission from another ship," said a woman with short brown hair in the front of the bridge. Her voice sounded familiar, oh yeah, this is that Marietta person that Maria was talking to earlier.

"Ship registry?"

"It's the Aquaelie, a federation battleship."

"What is a federation battleship doing out here?" Asked Fayt.

"Looks like we are about to find out," I said. The screen in the front of the bridge turned on. There was a dark skinned man with short black hair that connected to his beard and mustache. He was wearing an outfit that suggested that he was a high rank official in this federation.

"This is Commodore Wittcomb, it is an honor to meet you all," said the man.

"Likewise, I would never have expected to meet Commodore Wittcomb, the most highly praised official of the Pangalactic Federation in a place like this."

"Heh, I'm flattered. Anyway I wanted to tell you that a Vendeeni ship is coming, our analysts believe that they will not attack. So we expect the same from you," said Commodore Wittcomb.

"How can you be so sure that the Vendeeni won't attack?" Asked Fayt.

"Because..." Commodore Wittcomb was cut off as there was another beeping sound.

"Captain, we are receiving a transmission from a nearby ship, it's the Dasvanu," said Marietta. Commodore Wittcomb was silent and then the screen went blank and was replaced with the picture of a Vendeeni.

"This is Captain Biwig, surrender and obey our orders," said the Vendeeni.

"Nice to meet you too," said Maria sarcastically.

"Dr. Leingod, enemy of the galaxy, and the girl are in our hands. You have no choice but to listen to what we have to say." In the background was a main with glasses and grayish hair and from what I could see behind Biwig's shoulder, the man was wearing a pink shirt. Next to him was a girl with brown hair and green eyes. She was wearing a pink tank top and jeans.

"Dad! Sophia!" Exclaimed Fayt.

"We will exchange the girl and Dr. Leingod for Fayt."

"And the place of exchange? Obviously we don't trust one enough for it to be between ships."

"Indeed you are right, the exchange will take place on the planet you are orbiting. We are going to send you the coordinates now."

"The Dasvanu has sent the coordinates, 147.5834, 34.8874," said Marietta.

"Display the location," said Maria. A new screen popped up of an arena.

"Hey that's..." Said Fayt.

"Oh yeah, that place," said Cliff.

"You've been there before?" Asked Maria as she looked over at Cliff.

"Yeah."

"What is that place?" I asked.

"It's the arena on the top floor of the Kirlsa Training Facility," replied Fayt.

"I see."

"We will arrive at your location soon, further instructions will be given then," said Biwig. The screen went blank.

"Encrypt our signal to the Aquaelie," said Maria.

"Roger," said Marietta. The screen turned on and this time it was Commodore Wittcomb on screen.

"I heard everything," said Commodore Wittcomb.

"You won't give Fayt up, will you?" I asked as I looked over at Maria.

"Of course not, I won't let them have Fayt, Dr. Leingod, or Sophia," answered Maria.

"So you are going to rescue them?" Asked Commodore Wittcomb.

"Yeah, we will think of something. So tell me, how much does the Federation know?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me. You wouldn't be trying to secure Dr. Leingod, let alone Fayt if you didn't have any background info."

"Well your reasons are no different from ours. As for the Vendeeni, who knows what they want? But we can't let them have either of them."

"You are right."

"Best of luck to you, we will be there shortly to lend a hand." The screen went blank. A few seconds later there was a beep.

"A transmission from the Dasvanu," said Marietta.

"Display," said Maria. On screen was Biwig once again.

"Transport down to the specified location. No heroics," said Biwig.

"Understood, we will exchange Fayt for Dr. Leingod and the Esteed's child, that's the deal."

"Yes, that is the deal." The Screen went blank.

"All right, it's time to assemble a team," said Maria.

"We can only transport six at a time, they shouldn't be able to transport anymore than that," said Cliff.

"Your right about that. Let's see... our team will be, Fayt, Cliff, Alex, and I. Lancar will pick two soldiers to go with us," said Maria.

"Huh? Why Alex?" Asked Cliff.

"Yeah, why me? I am not even involved in this in any way," I said.

"It's because of the fact that you are really strong, you'll be useful if the Vendeeni try something," replied Maria.

"So I am only becoming involved in this because of my strength?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Even using people who aren't at your disposal, you are one cold lady Maria," said Cliff.

"I just know how to use my resources." Maria pulled out her communicator. "Lancar, do you read me?"

"What's up Maria?" Asked Lancar.

"I want you to assemble two soldiers of your choice and give them level A equipment, it's not enough for those disrupter rifles but it's better than nothing."

"Will do."

"Well I'm going to the Armory," said Cliff. Cliff got up and left the Bridge.

"Wow Maria, you are quite the leader," I said.

"Well thanks I guess," said Maria with a grin.

"Yeah, I am impressed too," said Fayt.

"You two are free to do whatever, I don't need you guys for anything at the moment." We nodded and left the bridge.

* * *

_I had hoped that rescuing Dr. Leingod and this Sophia girl wouldn't take too long. Every second lost hastened the assault of the Executioners. I knew this and feared it. Even the Executioners are a threat to the staff of the Sphere Company if they are in the Eternal Sphere. The Executioners are programmed to act on their own accord, even we the staff of the Sphere Company can't control what they do once they are released into a galaxy.

* * *

_

Well I managed to get this chapter finished before I go to my grandma's house for Christmas. Since she doesn't have internet it kind of makes it impossible for me to post up any new chapters. I will be leaving on the 22nd or the 23rd and when I get back around the 28th or 29th I will have a new chapter to post up. Anyway, please review.


	6. Rescue

1Thank you all who reviewed! Anyway, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean

* * *

Chapter 6: Rescue

Cliff and I waited outside of the transporter room. After ten or fifteen minutes had passed, the announcement system turned on.

"Everyone who is participating in rescuing Dr. Leingod report to the transporter room at this time," said Maria. In the next few seconds people slowly started walking over to where Cliff and I were standing. Fayt came first, followed by the two Quark soldiers going down to Elicoor II with is, and finally Mirage and Maria. Maria looked around at all of us. "Is everyone ready?" We all nodded. "Good, then let's go down there and rescue Dr. Leingod."

"But first we have to beat the crap out of the Vendeeni," I said as I spun the handle of my swallow and reattached it to my belt.

"Your right about that Alex, they aren't going to give Dr. Leingod up so easily," said Cliff.

"It would be so much easier if they would actually cooperate with other races than themselves," said Maria.

"They're just overly arrogant and they prefer to handle things by themselves, those are some of the biggest reasons they would never cooperate with humans or any other race," said Mirage.

"Anyway, let's go."

"Be careful everyone."

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," said Fayt.

"I'm leaving you in control, Mirage," said Maria.

"Roger, Captain," said Mirage.

"See you soon." We walked into the transporter room and within a few seconds we were all on Elicoor II. We were inside that arena that was shown on that screen earlier. I looked around at the scenery, it was quiet, too quiet. The silence was broken as the Vendeeni transported down with Sophia and Dr. Leingod. But then something else transported down. It was some sort of mechanical device.

"What the?" I asked.

"A transport jammer?" Exclaimed Fayt.

"Hand over the boy," said Biwig as he gestured for Fayt to come over to him.

"I thought we had a deal!" Said Maria.

"Did you? Don't play stupid, you human scum are always up to dirty tricks. Just look at your equipment, what is that suggesting?"

"It's called coming prepared."

"Whatever, now hand over the boy."

"No! Run!" Exclaimed Sophia. The two Quark soldiers to my right and left pulled out their guns, but before they could fire the Vendeeni had out-drew them and the two soldiers were killed.

"No!" Exclaimed Maria.

"Take the boy alive, kill the rest!" Ordered Biwig. I activated my swallow and got ready to fight. The two Vendeeni soldiers went down pretty quick since they were sorely outnumbered. I walked over to where Sophia and Dr. Leingod were standing.

"Just a second, I'll get rid of these shackles," I said. I snapped my finger in front of both of their shackles. There was a flash of light and the shackles had completely disappeared. Sophia got up, looked back at me, and nodded. Then she ran over to Fayt and embraced him.

"Fayt!" Exclaimed Sophia. Dr. Leingod had gotten up as well.

"Thank you. By the way, who are you?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, my name is Alex Rothrock." The two of us walked back over to the others.

"Seems the tables have turned," said Maria.

"Yes, it would appear so... or so you would like to think," said Biwig. Suddenly three mechanical things transported down. They were shaped like spiders and they were pretty damn big.

"Wait, a transport jammer is here!" Exclaimed Cliff.

"Our technology only blocks those we want it to," said Biwig.

"Looks like a retreat is in order for now," I said.

"Your right. Alex, you will be at the end of our line. If they pursue, hold them off to buy us time to escape," said Maria.

"You got it," I said. I activated my swallow again and we started running. These spider like things were faster than I had thought. Maria should have just said: "I want you to hold them off and buy us some time." I stopped at the exit of the arena and got into a fighting stance. I cut the first spider like machine in half and I stabbed the other spider like machine in it's face. I pulled out my swallow just in time to block several disrupter rifle blasts. I looked up to see that several Vendeeni soldiers had been transported down. Man, these guys have a lot of reinforcements on their ship. They must have been planning this all along. I cut up a few more foes until I heard Maria call from the very end of the hallway.

"Alex! Fall back!" Good thing she told me that, I was starting to get sorely outnumbered. Almost every second six more enemies were transported down. Soon I was facing well over sixty foes. I can't do much against these guys if I limit my powers like I am doing now. But I can't show much more power than this, everyone will start to get suspicious about how I suddenly became so powerful. But that doesn't mean that I can't increase the output a little bit. Normally I keep the output at a limit of 10 of it's normal capacity, but on some occasions I will raise it up. If I were to raise it to 100 I would be as strong as Luther when he is in the Eternal Sphere and he has activated what we call: "Angel mode". I raised my max to about 4 higher and I put my swallow away. I started running down the hallway towards everyone else. Within four seconds flat I had gone from the exit of the arena all the way to where everyone was waiting for me.

"Wow, that was fast," said Fayt.

"Let's go, they are following us," I said. We ran down a few hallways and we got near a door. Fayt looked back to see Sophia limping behind us.

"Are you okay Sophia?" Asked Fayt.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Sophia. Fayt bent down.

"Let me see your leg." Sophia pulled up her right pant leg up a little bit to reveal a bloody wound. Must have been from that battle earlier.

"Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" Exclaimed Fayt.

"I didn't want to slow you guys down," said Sophia.

"Let's find somewhere to hide for now," said Maria. We entered the nearby room, it was a good sized kitchen with plenty of space. I looked back to hear the sound of footsteps.

"Damn, they just keep coming," I said.

"I'll distract them. You take a break Alex," said Cliff. He stepped outside and partially closed the door.

"There's one!" Exclaimed a Vendeeni soldier as they ran past the door. There was a few moments of silence.

"Their transport jammer should have a 2-kilometer range of effect, right?" Asked Maria as she broke the silence.

"That is our technology, the Vendeeni technology might have a greater range of effect," said Dr. Leingod.

"We can discuss what to do when Cliff get's back," said Fayt. He looked over at his father. "In the meantime, there is something I want to ask you Dad."

"So you finally found out," said Dr. Leingod. He took a deep breath and continued talking. "Know this: I never once thought of you as a tool for my research. You were born because your Mother and I wanted a child of our own. It's time I..."

"Tell us why! How could you perform genetic engineering on your own son?" Exploded Maria. I almost jumped ten feet in the air from the unexpected outburst from Maria. I never knew she could be that loud. Dr. Leingod looked at Maria and then back at his son.

"Who is she?"

"That's Maria Traydor, leader of Quark. You performed genetic engineering on her too," explained Fayt.

"Traydor? So you must be Jessie's child."

"Explain yourself Dr. Leingod, I think we have the right to know!" Exclaimed Maria. Dr. Leingod was silent for a moment and then he spoke.

"I did it for the sake of our Universe." For their Universe? Does that mean that Dr. Leingod knows about us?

"Our Universe? How could manipulating our genes be related to such a grand scale?" Asked Maria.

"It's true, I modified your genes to counter an enemy that would one day threaten the existence of all that lives." I felt uneasy hearing this, they are getting closer to finding out the truth. If they discover the truth about me and the Eternal Sphere then I will be in a lot of danger. "I can't explain it here, all I ask is that you trust me for now."

"Is that it? You expect us to accept an answer like that?" Asked Maria furiously.

"Maria..." Said Fayt slowly.

"That's not what I wanted to hear!" Shouted Maria. I looked over at Maria.

"I can understand how you couldn't accept an answer like that. But Dr. Leingod is right, now is not the time to discuss..."

"You don't understand! You don't know a damn thing! None of this is any of your concern or business! So stay out of it!" Shouted Maria as she turned her glare at me.

"I know that!" I shouted starting to get a little mad about getting dished out crap for no reason. Maria seemed a bit taken aback at my reply. "I know this is none of my business, I understand that very well. But think logically here and look at our situation. We are in a kitchen, in a building that is overrun and under control of the enemy that is looking for us! We don't have time to sit down and talk things over, if we do that we will be found and most of us will get killed! Would you rather find out why Dr. Leingod manipulated your genes in this world or the AFTERLIFE? We should discuss this in a more safer place like the Diplo wouldn't you agree?" Maria looked down at the ground and then looked back up at me.

"Your... your right Alex. I'm sorry, I lost my cool. I didn't mean to..." I simply raised my hand.

"It's alright. Your reaction is understandable."

"Alex, right?" Asked Dr. Leingod. I looked back at him.

"Yeah, that's my name." Dr. Leingod looked at my clothes and then he looked back into my eyes. Suddenly his eyes widened and he gasped. "You, you're..." Dr. Leingod's shock disappeared. "I never would have expected someone else besides them from where you come from. Why are you here?" So Dr. Leingod really does know where I am from and he knows about the Executioners. I guess I can tell him a few things.

"I was stuck here after a certain incident. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get out before they came. But don't worry, I will try to reason with him when I get back."

"I see... that might work. But I am still going to go with my original plans."

"I suppose you will explain what those plans are when we get out of here."

"Yes."

"What are you two talking about?" Asked Maria.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," I said. Maria gave me a suspicious look.

"Yo, I'm back," said Cliff. "I cleared out all the enemies in this area. But more will be coming soon."

"With that transport jammer we have no choice but to make a stand," said Fayt.

"Sounds like a plan," I said.

"I'll contact the Diplo and tell them our plan," said Maria as she activated her communicator. "Maria to Diplo."

"I'm here," said Marietta.

"That Biwig is using a transport jammer. We are going to destroy it and defeat the Vendeeni, be ready to transport us up at that time."

"Cannot comply!"

"What's wrong?"

"The Dasvanu is currently attacking us, we have our hands full just trying to stay alive. Transports as this time would lead to disaster!" In the background there was the sound of the ship being hit by something.

"Where's the Aquaelie? It should have been there by now."

"It's being blocked by another Vendeeni ship, it needs more time!"

"Hold the Vendeeni off as best you can."

"Roger." Maria turned off her communicator.

"Damn, they must have been planning this all along," said Cliff.

"If the Vendeeni are busy fighting too, I doubt they are going to get anymore reinforcements," said Fayt.

"You've got a good point, Fayt," said Sophia.

"Then let's go and take advantage of this situation," I said.

"Let's go back up to that arena, it's time for round two," said Maria. We left the kitchen and made our way back to the Arena. We pulled out our weapons and ran out into the arena. Dr. Leingod and Sophia stayed at the entrance to the Arena.

"You've put up a nice fight, I'll give you that. But it ends now, hand over the boy!" Said Biwig. "I will say it once, it is futile. You can't transport up but we can keep on transporting reinforcements down, there's no escape." Biwig started laughing.

"The only reason you have the advantage is..." I started.

"Because of that thing you fool!" Finished another voice.

"Huh?" I looked up to see someone jump from the top of the arena wall. The person drew their sword and slashed the transport jammer in half, destroying it. The person looked back at Biwig, it was Albel.

"What the?" Asked Cliff.

"Albel?" Asked Fayt.

"Are you so confident about your so called: 'upper hand' now?" Taunted Albel with a sneer.

"Damn you!" Exclaimed Biwig as he shot several blasts at Albel. Albel had managed to dodge a few but then one of them grazed his shoulder. He let out a scream and fell to the ground.

"Biwig!" Exclaimed Fayt furiously.

"The destruction of our transport jammer means nothing. Our flagship can crush your flagship any second, minute, hour, day, month, year, decade, century, millennium, whenever the hell it is we can still crush you." Just as Biwig finished a group consisting of several Quark soldiers and Lieber transported down.

"You were saying?" I asked.

"Captain! Are you okay?" Asked Lieber as he turned around to look at Maria.

"What is going on? Where are the next batch of reinforcements?" Asked Biwig. The nearest Vendeeni soldier whispered something to Biwig. "What? The Aquaelie? Damn!" Biwig pulled out his communicator. "Dasvanu! Transport us up!" Biwig and his soldiers disappeared.

"Thanks, that was close," said Maria.

"No problem," said Lieber.

"Give me a status report."

"The Aquaelie just arrived, the Dasvanu stands no chance against the Diplo and the Aquaelie combined." Sophia and Dr. Leingod walked over to where we were. Maria pulled out her communicator and contacted the Diplo. I walked over to Fayt, Cliff, and Sophia who were kneeling before Albel. Albel had a wound that was between minor and major. Albel will be fine, but if we don't get him medical attention soon he will die.

"Horrible..." Said Sophia as she looked at the wound.

"What are you doing here?" Asked Fayt.

"This... is my turf... decided to drop by... and this happened..." Said Albel and then he passed out.

"Let's get him back to the Diplo, I am sure they can do something about his wound."

"Hey guys," said Maria. We turned around to face her. "The Dasvanu was just destroyed."

"Some good news," I sighed.

"But it's not over yet," said Maria as she turned off her communicator.

"Huh?" Asked Fayt.

"According to Marietta the Dasvanu sent something down before it's destroyed." I looked up at the northern wall of the Arena and activated my swallow.

"Some people just don't know when to die," I said. Everyone looked up to see Biwig with his disrupter rifle aimed at Fayt.

"If I can't use you, I shall eliminate you!" Exclaimed Biwig as he fired his disrupter rifle.

"No!" Exclaimed Dr. Leingod as he pushed Fayt out of the way. With a huge burst of speed I ran in front of Dr. Leingod and blocked the disrupter rifle blast.

"What the?" Exclaimed Biwig.

"Your not killing anybody!" I exclaimed.

"Get out of the way you meddling fool!"

"If you want me out of the way, you'll have to kill me first!"

"Then so be it!" Exclaimed Biwig as he shot a storm of blasts at me. I blocked all of them and then I started rushing towards the wall. I activated the gravity delay program and I started running up the wall. Biwig started firing shots at me again. I blocked them and as I got near the top Biwig slammed the back of his rifle into my gut and I was sent flying back. "Take this!" Biwig pulled something out of his pocket that was round and was blinking. He threw several of them at me, my guess was that they were bombs.

"Strike flip!" I exclaimed. In a blast of air I back flipped away from the bombs. I was just in time because as I got further away they exploded. "SWALLOW BOMB!" I focused energy into my swallow and I threw it at Biwig. As it impaled him there was an explosion of energy, killing him instantly. I back flipped several times and I landed on the ground on my two feet. I got up and snapped my finger. The swallow rose out of Biwig's corpse and flew back to me. I caught it and deactivated it.

"You've got some interesting attacks, Alex. I have never seen anything like those before," said Maria.

"Yeah, where on earth did you learn how to do things like that?" Asked Cliff.

"It's just something I can do," I said with a grin and shrugged. Everyone sighed.

"That's Alex for you," said Fayt.

"Always providing wise guy comments like that," finished Maria. Maria's communicator started beeping. Maria activated her communicator.

"Captain, are you guys okay? What did they send?" Asked Marietta.

"Biwig came back down, Alex just finished him off a few seconds ago."

"Alright. Mirage they are okay."

"That's a relief. We will transport all of you up in one minutes time," said Mirage. Just as Mirage said, within a minute we were all transported up to the Diplo. Sophia and Albel got treatment for their wounds. The rest of us were in the meeting room, waiting to hear any news about how Albel's wounds were healing. Maria looked over at Dr. Leingod.

"Now, I think it's time you explained a few things for us," said Maria.

"Your right, I owe you and my son an explanation. I have all the data you want at my lab. It would be easier if we go there and I will be able to explain everything down to the last detail," said Dr. Leingod.

"There have been several searches in your lab for data of that sort but nothing was found. Unless you know of something that we don't."

"Yes, there is a hidden file. Only I know how to access it."

"Then it's off to Moonbase," said Cliff.

"Moonbase? Sounds interesting, I want to check that place out," said a voice at the door. We turned around to see Albel standing there.

"What?" Asked Fayt.

"Do you even know what you are saying? There is the possibility that you may never return back to Elicoor II," said Maria.

"Yeah, so? The war is over and there is no excitement left in Airyglyph. Besides, I was starting to get really bored there anyway," said Albel.

"Do you really know what you are getting yourself into?" Asked Sophia.

"No, but whatever it is I will not slow you down at all."

"Well, I don't see why you can't come with us," said Fayt.

"You serious about that? He's from an underdeveloped planet, this is a completely different world for him," I said.

"Well you know Albel, he will go with us even if we don't want him to."

"I suppose." Fayt looked over at Cliff, Maria, Sophia, and his father.

"What about you guys?"

"I don't have a problem with it," said Cliff.

"No objections fro me," said Maria.

"If he wants to come, then I don't see why not," said Sophia.

"Are you sure about that, Fayt? If the feds find out there could be a lot of trouble," said Dr. Leingod.

"I don't think they will care too much about it," said Cliff.

"Good to have you with us," said Fayt as he looked over at Albel. There was a beep and the announcement system turned on.

"Captain, we received a transmission from the Aquaelie," said Mirage.

"Alright, I will be there in just a moment," said Maria. We proceeded to walk up to the bridge. On screen was Commodore Wittcomb.

"It's good to see that you are safe, Dr. Leingod," said Commodore Wittcomb.

"It is thanks to everyone here," said Dr. Leingod.

"Now that you have been rescued from the Vendeeni this may give the Federation some hope." Dr. Leingod looked down at the ground.

"So they really have come at last."

"Perhaps we should discuss this on my ship, would that be possible?" Dr. Leingod looked over at Maria.

"Would you mind?"

"If that's alright with you Commodore. Quark and the Federation aren't exactly friends," said Maria.

"The Aquaelie is my ship, and on my ship I decide who is friend or foe," said Commodore Wittcomb.

"Alright, we'll be over there in a few minutes."

"Commodore, could you take us to Federation Station#5?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Federation Station#5? That's..."

"Yes the place where my lab is."

"Why do you need to go there?"

"There is a hidden file that only I know how to access is contains the data about this upcoming crisis."

"I see, very well then. We will go to Moonbase. Bring only the required personnel." The screen went blank.

"Okay, so I will go, Fayt is going, Cliff is going, Albel is going, Sophia is going, Dr. Leingod is going, and Alex is going," said Maria. Maria looked over at Mirage and Marietta. "I am leaving you two in control, take care of her while I am gone."

"Roger," said Mirage.

"Captain... be careful," said Marietta.

"Will do," said Maria. As we started walking towards the transporter room Maria looked back at me.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I want to apologize for getting you involved in this, I am sure that you want to get back to your team."

"It's alright, besides I am quite interested in the turn of events that have been going on lately."

"Once things quiet down we will get you back to Styx."

"Okay." We went to the transporter room and within a single second we were on the Aquaelie. A man by the name of Lieutenant Fields escorted us to the Conference room where we all sat down.

"It will take us awhile to get to Moonbase, in the meantime I will explain our current situation," said Commodore Wittcomb. He exhaled and then he started talking again. "The entire galaxy is currently under attack by a new force that we were unaware of until now. We do not know much about them yet but we did receive one transmission from them."

"So who are they?" Asked Fayt.

"They call themselves the Executioners, emissaries of the Creator." So it really is the Executioners, Luther is playing a risky move to go around proclaiming things like Executioners and the Creator. If the people of the Eternal Sphere manage to put two and two together along with doing some logical thinking and research we will be in a lot of trouble, especially me. The show is over for me if everyone else finds out about my origins.

"The Creator?" Asked Sophia.

"It's not uncommon for dictators to claim divine origin," explained Commodore Wittcomb. He looked over at Dr. Leingod. "Apparently Dr. Leingod here discovered the existence of these beings long ago."

"That's right. That's what led me to genetically engineering my own son and Maria," said Dr. Leingod.

"But what good would a few humans do against a fleet of battleships? They don't look like weapons."

"But I destroyed the Invisible," said Maria.

"What? You did that?"

"And Fayt here neutralized a Vendeeni ship," I said.

"I see, then maybe we really do stand a chance against this new threat." There was a beep.

"Bridge to Commodore we have received a transmission from Federation Station#9," said someone from the bridge.

"Display it."

"Yes sir." A screen popped up, it was covered in static and it was hard to hear what the person was saying. But I managed to decipher this:

"Commodore! ...'re under att...k by a group callin... them... selves the Executioners! Req...ing immediate... Gah! Th...those aren't ships! What are they? Are... are they gods?" The screen went blank and there was dead silence.

"We've lost the signal. Federation Station#9 has been... obliterated!"

"What? Obliterated?" Exclaimed Commodore Wittcomb.

"Orders Commodore?"

"Maintain our present course."

"Yes sir." Commodore Wittcomb looked over at us.

"We will be at Moonbase within twelve hours. Take this time to rest up." We left the room and either went to our rooms or walked around in the hallways. I stood in one of the hallways looking out the window. The stars looked peaceful, but soon everything will be thrown into chaos. Once the Executioners reach the planet Earth, everything will begin.

* * *

_I was afraid that I was too late, that I couldn't stop the Executioners at this point. But I had to try, there was still hope. What I was more afraid of was the possibility of Fayt and the others finding out the truth about me and the Eternal Sphere. If they find out about that then I would be in a lot of trouble. But after seeing that incident occur before my eyes I felt that death didn't seem so bad anymore.

* * *

_

So what incident is Alex talking about? You'll find out in the next chapter. Anyway, please review.


	7. Manipulated

Once again, thank you all who reviewed! You know the drill.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean.

* * *

Chapter 7: Manipulated

About two hours had passed and I was starting to feel a little tired. According to Commodore Wittcomb there was a quite a few spare rooms that we could use. I remembered finding a vacant room so I headed back there and went to sleep. A lot of things were on my mind, but I felt that it would be better to get some rest now and worry about those things later.

Meanwhile... Switching from Alex's POV to Fayt's POV

I was looking out the window with Sophia. It had been awhile since we last saw each other so we took the time to tell our stories to one another.

"Ah, there you are Fayt," said someone behind us. Sophia and I turned around to see Maria standing behind us.

"Was there something you wanted to talk about?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's about Alex," said Maria.

"What about him?" Asked Sophia.

"I looked over his story about him being from an investigating team on Styx again. This time I found one major hole that I overlooked."

"What does it matter? Maybe he forgot to mention a few details," I said. Maria shook her head.

"If it weren't such a big hole in his story than you would be right. But this one hole prevents everything in his story from fitting together."

"What do you mean?" Asked Sophia.

"According to Alex, his team ran out of supplies that they need to keep on crossing the terrain of Styx. He left the planet to get the supplies he needed. If he was on the investigating team then he would be part of the federation, giving him access to their resources on the stations near Styx. But instead he goes off in search of another planet and somehow ends up on Elicoor II which is quite a distance away from Styx. Do you see what I am getting at?"

"Yes I do," I said.

"So you are saying that Alex is lying," concluded Sophia.

"I believe so but it hasn't been confirmed yet. I am going to ask Commodore Wittcomb about this," said Maria. Maria walked off towards the bridge. What Maria had said made a lot of sense. But why would Alex lie to us?

"Fayt," said Sophia in soft voice. I looked over at her. "What do you think? What does this mean about Alex? He seems like a nice, trustworthy person."

"I think we can trust him, based on his actions on Elicoor II I would say that he is a person who is just trying to help us out."

"I agree with that."

"I'm back," said Maria. We looked over at her again.

"So what did you find out?"

"Just as I suspected. Commodore Wittcomb checked the Federation database, not only is Alex not registered with the Federation but there hasn't been a single investigation team on Styx in years."

"So it really was just a lie then," I said.

"That's right. But for some reason he wants to go to Styx. Why? What could he accomplish on a barren planet like Styx?"

Back to Alex's POV

I woke up about 10 hours later, I left the room and I walked up to the Bridge where everyone else was gathering.

"We have arrived at Moonbase. Since you won't be able to transport directly to Dr. Leingod's research lab we will transport you to a nearby section of moonbase. Move out, and good luck to all of you," said Commodore Wittcomb. We walked over to the transporter room and within a few seconds we were all on Moonbase.

"So this is moonbase," said Albel.

"I've been here before, but I transported directly to Uncle Robert's research lab," said Sophia.

"I remember that, that was a pretty long time ago," said Dr. Leingod.

"I remember coming here every now and then," said Fayt.

"That too was awhile ago, but you did make more trips here than Sophia."

"So where exactly is your lab, Dr. Leingod?" I asked.

"It's a little ways away from where we are now, the Creation Zone."

"I see."

"Let's go, we don't have much time to waste," said Maria. We moved on to the next section. For some odd reason there was no one around. The only sound other than our footsteps was the sound of the machines running.

"Ouch!" Said Fayt. I looked over at him.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Learn to dodge, fool," jeered Albel. Maria bent down and picked up the object that was thrown at Fayt.

"A rock?" Asked Maria.

"That was random," said Dr. Leingod.

"Say your prayers!" Exclaimed a voice above us. We turned around to see a small girl with short white hair in pig tails. She had brownish skin and she was wearing a pink outfit. On her wrists were large metal like bracelets connected to two red pieces of cloth and on them was the largest beads I had ever seen.

"Peppita?" Asked Fayt.

"Fayt? Sophia? What are you guys doing here?" Asked Peppita. While Peppita led us off to some room with a bunch of other people Fayt and Sophia explained all that had happened. "What an amazing story that is."

"So what was with throwing the rock?" Asked Cliff.

"We were preparing for our performance but then they threw us all in here. They said there was some sort of new threat. I was so mad that I started looking for the officials to give them a piece of my mind."

"It might be better for your sake that you stayed here with the others. Then again, if THEY were to come here nowhere would be safe," I said gravelly.

"According to that one transmission the Executioners are god like, so they are probably really powerful," said Fayt.

"They are powerful, there is no question about that. But they are not gods, more like demons."

"Are you talking about that new threat?" Asked Peppita.

"Yeah."

"Stay here where it is safe," said Maria.

"O-okay," said Peppita. We left the room and Dr. Leingod led us to the next area. As we got close to the entrance to the area where Dr. Leingod's lab is an alarm went off.

"Intruder alert, intruder detected within facility," said the computer.

"They aren't talking about us are they?" Asked Cliff. Suddenly I sensed a burst of strong energy, an Executioner was teleporting right to this location. There was a flash of light and a proclaimer slowly flew down.

"What is that?" Asked Sophia.

"It's one of them," said Dr. Leingod.

"You got that right," I said as I took several steps forward.

"That's an Executioner?" Asked Maria.

"I can see how they could be mistaken for gods," said Albel.

"I proclaim the will of the Enforcers," said the Proclaimer. I held out my right hand and it started glowing.

"I who walk in the light, proclaim there is no need to fight," I said.

"Alex Rothrock, System Moderator. You do not have access to command the Executioners."

"WHAT?" I exclaimed.

"The Creator has taken this ability from you and everyone else but himself."

"That bastard! Is he trying to get me killed?" Luther had taken away a major ability from me and had broken the safe guard that would keep staff members safe from the Executioners. What the hell was he thinking?

"What are you talking about?" Asked Cliff.

"This isn't the best time to talk about this," I said as I activated my swallow. Okay, if I can't control the Executioners, my own creations, then I have no choice but to destroy any I come across. If I am caught by the staff of the Sphere Company, I could be labeled a traitor and punished. I know the risks very well but I would rather get home in one piece instead of being deleted.

"So, it's time for fight this maggot. Sounds like fun," said Albel as he drew his sword.

"Be careful everyone! The Executioners are a lot stronger than anything you have faced before!"

"Prepare to die irregularities," said the Proclaimer. We charged in and fought the Proclaimer. After a difficult battle we had defeated the Proclaimer. The Proclaimer staggered back and then looked straight at me. "Alex... Rothrock. If you continue this path of defiance and the Creator finds you, your fate will be sealed."

"Yes, I know that I will be labeled a traitor. I am aware of my fate if I should fail. But it is for the countless innocent lives that he wants to destroy, I want to save this galaxy!"

"Then so be it. Your... path... has been set... you are going... to die." Suddenly a large bead wacked the Proclaimer on the head and it disappeared. It was none other than Peppita.

"Wasn't so tough," she said with a grin on her face.

"What a reckless brat," muttered Albel.

"Didn't we say that you should stay where you were?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Yeah, but I decided to come anyway," said Peppita as she walked over to us.

"Okay, you can come with us but once we leave moonbase you stay here," said Fayt.

"Alright."

"Alright then, let's..." I started.

"Wait Alex," interrupted Maria. I looked back at her.

"Something wrong?"

"Yes, something is wrong. I know for a fact that your story about being from an investigation team on Styx is a complete lie." My eyes widened in shock. Damn, I never thought that anyone would re-analyze my story. "Based on what you said, you are somehow connected to the Executioners and their leader, the Creator. Am I right?" I wad dead silent. "Am I right?"

"Yes..."

"What is this connection? Why do you want to go to Styx?"

"I can't explain it right here. Once we visit Dr. Leingod's lab I should be able to give you a few details."

"If you say so."

"Let's keep going," said Dr. Leingod. We left that area and Dr. Leingod let us to an elevator. We went down it and we were in a large laboratory. We followed Dr. Leingod over to a large screen with a control panel in front of it. "Computer, scan Maria Traydor's genetic profile and display results."

"My genetic profile?" Asked Maria.

"Scanning..." Said the Computer. "Searching..." There was a beep and a window popped up. "One file found."

"This is it," said Dr. Leingod as he looked over at Fayt and Maria. He looked back at the computer screen. "Open file and play the video." Another window popped up, on screen was Dr. Leingod and three other scientists. Dr. Leingod on the screen looked younger so this must be from quite a few years ago. Dr. Leingod looked back at Fayt, Maria, and Sophia. "Recognize them?"

"It's you and Mom," said Fayt.

"It's my Dad," said Sophia.

"And my Mother," said Maria.

"That's right, now listen to what we have to say," said Dr. Leingod as we turned our attention back to the screen. As I watched the video everything became clear to me. So Dr. Leingod and his team really did know about our world and about the Executioners. It was all because Luther suddenly changed and he made the Time Gate proclaim that message. This is a perfect example of cause and effect. But to my surprise it turns out that Sophia was also used in this experiment. So they call us 4D beings in this universe, what an odd name for a species. Now that they now about our world, about Luther, and the Time Gate it's only a matter of time before they discover the truth about me.

"I am sorry for the burden I have made you three carry," said Dr. Leingod as he lowered his head.

"As you said Dad, it is better that you and your team used your own children instead of the children of others," said Fayt.

"You are right. So what is your decision? Will you use your powers or will you not use your powers?"

"I am going to defeat the Creator and save this universe!"

"Count me in, this is my destiny," said Maria.

"I am going to use my powers as well," said Sophia.

"Very well then, let's head to Styx," said Dr. Leingod.

"But first," said Maria. She looked over at me.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

"What is a 4D being doing in a galaxy with the Executioners? Are you here to stop them or are you just plain suicidal?" I grinned.

"So you finally figured it out."

"Yeah, I pieced together the various parts and I came to that one and only conclusion. Your clothes, your weapon, your fighting style, they are all foreign. Plus you want to go to Styx where the Time Gate is and you were talking to the Proclaimer like you had some sort of connection with it."

"You are a very good analyst."

"So you are saying that you are a 4D being?" Asked Fayt who was totally stunned about it.

"Yeah." Fayt looked over at his Father.

"Did you know?"

"Almost as soon as I saw him. I don't know why but I could sense that he wasn't of this universe," said Dr. Leingod.

"So why are you here?" Asked Sophia.

"I can't exactly explain the full story right now, but I will be able to later. But I can tell you some of the more important things. I do have connections with the Executioners, but that can't be easily explained at this time. I am also good friends with the Creator, he is like a brother to me," I said.

"Wait, your friends with that high and mighty freak?" Asked Cliff. I lowered my head.

"He wasn't always like that. One day, he suddenly changed. That is what lead to the creation of the Executioners. I helped out in creating them."

"You helped create this things? Why?" Asked Peppita.

"The Creator, I mean Luther, had convinced me into doing it by telling me a bunch of lies. He told me that if beings from this universe were to come into our world they would kill anyone in sight. I grew afraid of your kind, even started to hate you. But deep down, I felt like I was doing a bad thing. I held my head up high and continued to work on the Executioners. But when I entered this universe I came to saw that you weren't much different from me or anyone else from our world. Then I knew without a doubt that what we were doing was wrong. That's when I decided one thing: From this point on I am going to fight the Executioners and save this galaxy. I may be labeled a traitor, and I may end up getting Executed if I am caught. But regardless of the risks I am going to fight."

"A renegade 4D being... so that's why you wanted to go to Styx. To end this crisis by defeating the source of it," said Maria.

"Bingo."

"So you are going to be pretty useful when we are in your universe since that is your turf," said Cliff.

"That's right."

"Then let's go to Styx," said Fayt. We left the research lab and headed back to the area nearby the transporter. Fayt stopped and looked back at Peppita. "I'm sorry Peppita, but we have to say goodbye here."

"What? I don't want to!" Exclaimed Peppita.

"Don't get upset, it's too dangerous," said Sophia.

"She's right, we don't know what kind of place 4D space is," said Fayt.

"We have no choice but to go," said Maria.

"To fight the Creator right?" Asked Peppita.

"That's right." I started laughing. Maria looked back at me like I had grown another head. "What are you laughing about?"

"It's just you guys are making a big deal out of my universe as if it's some sort of unknown dimension with ugly powerhouse monsters running around. It's nothing like that at all. Us 4D beings are pretty normal people... most of us at least," I said.

"If anyone here knows anything about that universe it's you of course," said Dr. Leingod.

"Everyone is going, I want to go to," said Peppita.

"This is not something you should be getting involved in, go back to your parents," said Maria.

"That was just a little harsh," said Sophia.

"But it's true. She's just a child trying to get herself involved in something way too big for her. She will slow us down."

"4D space as you call it is not that dangerous of a place. The one thing there that has the highest probability of killing you is boredom," I said.

"I am an orphan who was raised by the Rosetti troupe. They are all like a family to me and I love all of them. I want to protect them. I don't care if I die trying, take me with you, please!" Said Peppita. I bent down to face Peppita.

"I understand what you are saying, I am an orphan to."

"You are?"

"Yeah, my parents both died in an accident when I was only seven years old. After that I was all on my own. A little later I met Luther who would one day be called the Creator. Now that I am fighting against him I don't have anything I am protecting. If I were in your shoes and I had people to protect I would be begging to be taken along too."

"I guess I can relate to wanting to protect those I care for," said Maria. I got up and looked over at her with a grin.

"Since when did you care for anyone? I thought you were just some sort of emotionless droid."

"Hey! You are so mean! That was totally uncalled for!" Said Maria with a tone of mock hurt.

"Actually, I think it was called for. It is a perfect description of you." Everyone started laughing except Albel (no surprise there). Maria was laughing as well (not to mention she hit me in the back of the head while laughing). I looked over at Fayt. "So what do you think? Do you think Peppita should come with us?"

"It's okay with me," said Fayt.

"Fayt, are you sure?" Asked Sophia.

"Yeah, besides we don't know how tough the Creator is. We are going to need all the help we can get."

"You got that right," I said.

"So he is really powerful then, right?" Asked Cliff.

"I don't think I can start to describe how powerful he is."

"That is going to be a fun fight," said Albel.

"If you get permission from the circus master, you can go," said Fayt as he looked over at Peppita.

"Yay! Okay, I'll be back in just a moment," said Peppita. She ran off and a few minutes later she came back. "He said it was okay, so let's go!" We left and transported back onto the Aquaelie. From there we headed to the bridge.

"We're back Commodore," said Fayt.

"What took you so long? Was there any interference from the Executioners?" Asked Commodore Wittcomb.

"A little but we managed to deal with it," said Dr. Leingod.

"I see, so what did you find?"

"I accessed the secret file which only I knew how to access."

"So what was in it?"

"The identity of the Executioners," said Fayt.

"Go on."

"They really are emissaries of the Creator."

"Are you serious? Utter nonsense!"

"I know it's hard to believe but it is the truth," said Dr. Leingod.

"I suppose you are right. After seeing what they look like and their capabilities that is pretty easy to believe."

"So you have a visual of them?" Asked Cliff.

"Yes, display image." A screen popped up of one of the Executioners.

"They sure don't look like ships," said Maria.

"Indeed, not only that their size and capabilities show that they are stronger than any ship in this entire galaxy. We have managed to destroy a few of them but they do a lot more damage. They are now getting closer to our final line of defense."

"If the Executioners breech the final line Earth is done for," I said.

"You are most likely right. Not even the planetary shield could withstand their attacks."

"That's why we have to go and defeat the Creator. We can find him by going through the Time Gate on Styx," said Dr. Leingod.

"But isn't there the possibility that if we defeat the Creator we risk destroying his creation?"

"No, if the Creator is killed this universe will be free from his grasp," I said. The thought of killing Luther is unthinkable, I can't picture killing someone who is like a brother to me.

"Very well then, I will take you all to Styx."

"But the final line of defense, they need the Aquaelie," said Maria. "We'll take the Diplo and..."

"No, the Diplo would never make it to Styx. I will take all of you there."

"The Executioners are now moving against our final line of defense," said one of the operators. A screen popped up showing the Executioners slowly come towards the line of ships. Within a few seconds all of the ships had been destroyed. The Executioners flew past the explosions and closer towards Earth. They started firing shots towards the planet, there is no way the planet can take that constant barrage. But when I thought it couldn't get any worse I saw one massive Executioner slowly charging a blast. I gasped as I recognized that Executioner.

"_It can't be! No, it is! It's Omega!" _Omega was the leader Executioner, it was the most powerful Executioner, hell it's more powerful than the Convictors. I was the one who had created Omega, not just it's body structure but it's programming as well. It started charging up a beam of dark energy in it's mouth. The light grew brighter and then a few seconds later it was about to be fired. No, I won't let this happen! I activated my debugging tool and started typing furiously, trying to stop Omega from unleashing the attack. Suddenly the device started glowing red and it said: ACCESS DENIED. Omega let out a roar and fired the large blast at the Earth. _"NO!" _The blast hit and the earth was covered in spheres of crimson fire. Everyone was dead silent after seeing what had just happened.

"Calculate a course to Styx, get us out of the battle zone," said Commodore Wittcomb. One of the Operators started typing something.

"Course calculated: 112654.774," said the Operator.

"Good, get us out of here!" Just as we were about to enter Gravitic Warp, Omega looked at the Aquaelie and let out a roar. Then the screen went blank and we went into Gravitic Warp.

"No sign of the enemy detected in the present area."

"It seems like we have escaped them for now." Commodore Wittcomb looked over at us. "You should get some rest." We nodded and left the Bridge. I found an empty hallway with a line of windows. I looked out at space in Gravitic Warp and thought about what had just happened. Within the last minute well over several billion people died, I wished that I didn't have to witness the Executioners do that.

"_So, what do you think of your Executioners in action?" _Asked the voice from Elicoor II.

"You again? It makes me sick to see the Executioners kill all of those people."

"_That is a understandable response, but what how would you react if I told you that the deaths of all of those people on the planet and on those ships is all your fault?" _

"I wouldn't believe you. How could this be my fault? I didn't program them to be this powerful."

"_Didn't you make Omega?" _

"Yes, but that has nothing to do with it. I designed it exactly the way the blueprint said it should be designed."

"_Have you ever bothered to wonder why they wanted you to make the Executioners look like gods instead of ships?" _

"It's because they wanted the Executioners to look like gods, in order to hide the existence of our world."

"_That is what they wanted you to think. Ships can only do so much, while gods on the other hand..." _

"Oh come on, what other reason would they..." I was cut off as the truth dawned upon me. "No way!"

"_It is the truth, they wanted you to make them look like gods so they could make the Executioners insanely powerful." _

"No... no... that' can't be true!"

"_It is. It's all true. Luther manipulated you once again. He made you believe what he wanted you to believe. The deaths of all of those people... their blood is all over your hands!" _

"No..." The truth started coming to me, it really was all of my fault.

"_My, fate really does hate you. Your own friend is using you like a tool and manipulating you! All of those people, they died because of you!" _

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed as I slammed my fist against one of the parts of the wall. All of those people died because of me, all of those people died because I was a fool!

"_What will you do now?" _

"I am going to destroy the Executioners! I will destroy all of them! This is all my fault, and now I have to set things right. Even if it costs me my own life!"

"_That is your choice." _

"Alex? What's wrong?" Asked a voice. I looked over to see Fayt, Sophia, and Dr. Leingod.

"It's... it's all my fault. It's all my fault that those people died, it's because of me," I said.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Fayt.

"I did what they told me to do, I believed their words. As a result, those monsters were created. It's all of my fault!"

"You were doing what you were told, it's not your fault that those people died. It's the Creator's fault," said Sophia.

"But I was the one who gave them the ability to make the Executioners so powerful. It's because of me that all of those Federation soldiers and crew members on those ships were killed. It's because of me that so many of those people on earth were killed." I tightened my fist. "I will stop this madness, even if it costs me my life!" I slowly started walking away, I needed to go to bed.

"Where are you going?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"I'm going to bed, I need to rest," I said. I walked over to my room, went inside, and then went to bed.

* * *

_At that time, the only thing on my mind was stopping the Executioners. The memories of seeing the Executioners destroy Earth would continue to haunt me. No matter what I did they would keep on coming back. They would constantly point a finger at me and say: This is all your fault! But out of this gave me determination, I was determined to stop the Executioners before they could kill anyone else.

* * *

_

So now they are headed off towards Styx. Does Alex have the strength to rebel against his own people and fight for the freedom of the Eternal Sphere? The only way to find out is to keep reading the story of course... whenever I get a chance to finish and upload the next chapter. Anyway, please review.


	8. Memories

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean.

Chapter 8: Memories

* * *

That night I didn't sleep well at all. Those images of the Earth getting destroyed by Omega kept on haunting my dreams. I woke up several times and I would try to go back to sleep but it was no use. I got out of bed and left the room. I have started to grow a hobby of looking out at space through the windows.

"Can't sleep?" Asked a voice. I looked to my left to see Peppita.

"Yeah," I said. I looked out the window. "Those images of seeing Earth destroyed, they kept on haunting my dreams."

"Because you had a part in creating them, right?" Asked Peppita as she walked over to me.

"Yeah, and now I regret every second I spent helping Luther make those monsters." Suddenly the ship went out of Gravitic Warp.

"It looks like we are getting close to Styx." Suddenly I sensed an energy source nearby. Within a few seconds I recognized what the energy source was.

"Dammit, it's them!"

"The Executioners?"

"Yeah, about three of them. Among them is the leader Executioner that destroyed Earth."

"That's not good," said Peppita with a tone of worry. Suddenly there was a beep sound.

"Personnel from the Diplo, please report to the bridge," said Commodore Wittcomb. I looked back at Peppita.

"Let's go to the bridge, I am sure that what Commodore Wittcomb wants to say is related to the Executioners," I said. Peppita nodded.

"Okay," said Peppita. We walked over to the bridge and within a minute everyone else had come as well.

"What is it Commodore?" Asked Maria.

"We are 16 minutes away from Styx and we have picked up an energy source nearby. It's none other than a group of Executioners," replied Commodore Wittcomb.

"Oh great," said Cliff.

"I am sorry, I wasn't able to take you all the way."

"What? Are you saying that we should give up?" Asked Maria.

"I said nothing like that. All of you will take a shuttle to Styx."

"What about you guys?" Asked Fayt.

"Even if we were to go on a shuttle and you wee to turn back there is still the Executioners we have to worry about," I said.

"We have already decided what we are going to do. We are going to lure the Executioners away from you with the Aquaelie," said Commodore Wittcomb.

"That's suicide!" Exclaimed Fayt.

"Is there no other way?" Asked Sophia.

"There is no other way," said Maria.

"Don't worry, we aren't going to stand down without a fight. They shall face the power of the Federation!" Said Commodore Wittcomb. "Now go." We started leaving the bridge. I looked back at Commodore Wittcomb.

"Good luck," I said. I turned back towards the door and followed the others to the hangar. We got onboard the Calnus and we left the Aquaelie. Our ship slowly started moving closer to Styx. The Executioners were flying towards the Aquaelie which was leading them away from our direction. Within a short minute Maria lowered her head.

"I am no longer picking up the Aquaelie's signal," said Maria.

"Dammit," I said as I clenched my fist.

"Let's go down to Styx. It's the only way to end all of this," said Dr. Leingod.

"He's right. I am going to land us one kilometer away from the Time Gate," said Cliff. I looked up as I sensed something from outside of the ship.

"What the?" I asked as our ship started getting closer to Styx.

"What's wrong?" Asked Fayt.

"There's something weird going on with the last Executioner. I can't describe it."

"Is it coming towards our ship?" Asked Sophia. I shook my head.

"No, it's something else. The energy source of the Executioner is changing somehow. Like I said before, I can't describe it."

"So you can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing," said Maria.

"Yeah, that's right." We went through the atmosphere of Styx and we landed on the ground. We got out of the ship and looked around. All over the place was Proclaimers and Enforcers.

"Here's the welcome wagon," said Dr. Leingod.

"I thought there would be some of them here, but I wasn't expecting this many," said Maria.

"If they get in our way, I will kill them all," said Albel as a grin appeared on his face.

"If we are lucky they won't all attack at once," I said.

"And what are the chances of that?" Asked Peppita.

"It's safe to say that they are pretty low."

"We'll just have to proceed to the Time Gate carefully," said Fayt. We started walking away from our ship and closer to the Time Gate. As we were walking there was a sudden change in the behavior of the Executioners.

"Say, is it just me or are the Executioners retreating?" Asked Cliff. Cliff was right, the nearby Executioners were starting to fly away from us.

"What is going on?" Asked Sophia.

"Forget about that, we have a bigger problem," said Fayt. We all looked over at him to see that he was looking up at the sky. We looked in the same direction as well. My eyes widened in shock.

"What? Omega? The space units aren't supposed to land on planets! That is the job of the terrain units! They can't act on their own accord like that" I exclaimed. Omega was flying down towards us at high speed. "And what is with this energy I keep on sensing from Omega?" Omega landed on the ground in front of us and let out a roar.

"It's HUGE!" Exclaimed Peppita. I pulled out my swallow and looked back at the others.

"Be careful everyone! The space units are a lot more powerful! It's like fighting a battle ship!"

"Oh man, this isn't going to be easy," said Cliff. Omega raised one of it's claws and slammed it down onto the ground, causing it to break apart into slivers of rock. We had all managed to jump out of the way of the attack. Maria looked back at Peppita.

"Go with Dr. Leingod and find somewhere away from here to hide," said Maria. Peppita nodded.

"Okay," said Peppita. She ran over to Dr. Leingod. "Come on, let's go." Dr. Leingod nodded and he ran off with Peppita looking for somewhere to hide. Everyone else pulled out their weapons and charged towards Omega. Maria stopped and fired several shots at Omega, they managed to stun Omega long enough for it's guard to drop down. Fayt slashed at a soft part of Omega's skin, cutting it. Cliff jumped up and dealt Omega a blow to the face. Albel slashed at Omega's right arm. Sophia shot off several fireballs at Omega, causing some damage on it. I rushed in and stabbed Omega in the ride side of it's lower torso. Omega let out a roar and shot an energy wave at us. We were all sent flying back and we landed on the ground.

"Ouch, that smarts," said Fayt as he slowly got up.

"I don't remember Omega having an attack like that," I grunted as I got up.

"If we rush in again we will only be kicked back. We need to come up with a plan," said Maria.

"Good idea, but it seems like Omega has a plan too," I said as I looked up at Omega. It was flying up into the air and it was charging a blast of energy. Omega shot off the blast directly at us.

"Hit the deck!" Exclaimed Cliff. We started running back from Omega trying to get away from the blast. The blast hit the ground and caused a huge explosion. We all fell to the ground again.

"That maggot is dead," said Albel as he got up.

"Is everyone okay?" Asked Sophia.

"If we can all stand up then we are probably fine," said Maria.

"Yeah, other than the fact that I almost went deaf from that explosion," I said. I looked over at Maria. "So what's the plan?"

"I want you guys to distract Omega, while you guys are fighting it I will charge my gun up to max energy and then I will blow it's head off."

"You have made another good plan as always," said Cliff.

"Okay everyone, let's go!" Maria pulled out her gun and started charging it while we rushed towards Omega to distract it. "Alex!" I looked over at Maria. She was running towards us with her gun ready. I nodded as I understood what I was supposed to do. I need down and put my hands together. Maria stepped onto my hands, I moved them up and she jumped high into the air. "Take this!" Maria fired her gun directly at Omega. Before it could look up there was a huge hole in it's head from where the blast had hit. Omega fell to the ground and disappeared.

"Oh yeah, good job Maria!" I said as I gave her a high five. Peppita and Dr. Leingod came out of there hiding place and walked over to us.

"Wow, that was amazing," said Peppita.

"I thought that the Executioners would be able to take more damage than that," said Dr. Leingod.

"_The programmers thought that there was no way a being from this universe could defeat an Executioner so they gave it very little endurance. A major careless mistake," _I said in my thoughts. "So shall we get going?"

"Yeah, let's go," said Fayt. We continued walking towards the Time Gate. Within thirty minutes or so we had finally found the Time Gate.

"So this is the Time Gate," said Cliff. Maria looked over at Dr. Leingod.

"According to what you said in that video, Sophia has the ability to open the door to 4D space. Right?" Asked Maria.

"That's right," said Dr. Leingod.

"But Uncle Robert, I don't know how to use my powers," said Sophia.

"Seems like her powers haven't manifested yet, Dad," said Fayt.

"Yes, her powers haven't manifested yet. But it will happen sooner than you think," said Dr. Leingod.

"What's that mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"Right, in the meantime let's go check out the gate," said Cliff.

"That's the only thing we can do at the moment," said Albel.

"What's wrong Sophia?" Asked Fayt. I turned around to see what they were talking about.

"My hand, it feels hot," said Sophia. Suddenly sparkles of light appeared around Sophia's hand and within a few seconds they turned into blue, glowing rings of symbology symbols.

"Her powers are manifesting," said Dr. Leingod. He looked over at his son with a grin. "I told you that you would find out soon enough." The Time Gate rotated into it's active mode.

"What's happening?" Asked Cliff.

"The Time Gate is activating," I explained. A large screen appeared inside of the Time Gate. It had a bunch of info and pictures of places on it.

"What's going on?" Asked Sophia. Suddenly a large sphere of light shot out of Sophia's hand and hit the screen of the Time Gate. She stumbled back and fell to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Asked Fayt as he bent down towards Sophia.

"Yeah." The screen had turned into a portal to Arkives. Finally, I was able to go home.

"Well done Sophia, you have opened the way to 4D space," said Dr. Leingod.

"So you have made it this far, impressive," said a voice behind us. We turned around to see Vox. I hadn't detected him, I must be losing my touch in sensing auras and energies.

"Vox? What are you doing here?" Asked Albel.

"I see you have joined this battle, somehow that doesn't surprise me," said Vox as he looked over at Albel. He then turned his gaze on me. "And you have decided to turn your back on your own people. Now, how will you tell them the truth? Or will you let them figure it out on their own?"

"I'll tell them everything, they have the right to know," I said. "By the way, how did you know that we were here? Why are you here? How did you figure out that I wasn't from this Universe?" Vox chuckled.

"My, my, so many questions. I have my ways, that's how I figured out who you were and where this place is. But basically, I came here to congratulate all of you for making it this far." He then looked around at all of us. "Are all of you ready for the truth on the other side?" Vox looked at me again. "And are you ready for what you will find out in your home world?"

"What are you talking about?" Vox smirked.

"That's something you'll have to find out for yourself," said Vox as he disappeared. There was total silence, no one spoke a word.

"How does he know all of this? The only ones who should know about the 4D beings and the purpose of the Time Gate are Dr. Leingod and his team and us," said Albel.

"That's what I would like to know. It doesn't make any sense," said Dr. Leingod.

"Alex, what did he mean by: 'the truth'?" Asked Maria. I looked over at her.

"There is something on the other side that I will be able to explain to all of you. I can't exactly explain what it is if we stay here," I said. To be honest I was a little worried, how would they react when they found out what the Eternal Sphere was?

"Then let's go find and defeat the Creator!" Said Fayt.

"Right, let's go," said Maria.

"Here I come Luther, and you had better have a damned good explanation!" I exclaimed. We all ran into the portal and once we crossed through we were in the town of Arkives. "Good to be home."

"Wow, this place isn't what I was expecting it to look like," said Dr. Leingod.

"Yeah, isn't the enemy home base more evil looking usually?" Asked Cliff.

"This is a normal town that has nothing to with the creation of the Executioners," I said.

"A town? What's this place called?" Asked Sophia.

"This place is called Arkives. I used to live here with my parents before they died."

"Hey Alex! Your back!" Exclaimed a familiar voice. I looked over to the right to see a young boy running towards us.

"Hey Flad," I said.

"I heard from Blair, she said that you got stuck in the Eternal Sphere. Are you okay? How did it happen? What was it like being in the Milky Way with the Executioners?" I started laughing.

"Whoa, whoa, one question at a time."

"Who is this?" Asked Fayt.

"Oh that's right, this is Flad. He is a friend of mine."

"Did he help make those Executioners?" Asked Peppita.

"No, I'm not one of the bad guys," said Flad.

"Hey, we aren't bad guys. We just do what we are told," I said. I looked over at Flad. "I think we should go to your house and explain the situation to these guys, they need to know the truth."

"You mean they are from the Eternal Sphere?"

"Yeah."

"Beings from the Eternal Sphere popping into real life? That is amazing! Come on, follow me!"

"Where are we going?" Asked Maria.

"I'm taking you over to Flad's house. I will be able to explain everything there," I said.

"Um, okay," said Cliff. I looked at everyone, few to none of them seemed to trust Flad that much.

"Come on, he isn't with the people who are trying to destroy your galaxy. Like I said before, not everyone is working with the Creator."

"We don't know anything about this world," said Sophia.

"Meaning that guiding us to where we need to go is up to you," said Cliff.

"With what's at stake we can't afford to mess up, so lead us in the right direction," said Dr. Leingod

"No pressure or anything," said Maria.

"I won't let any of you down," I said. I looked back at Flad. "Show us the way."

"Okay, follow me," said Flad. We started walking towards Flad's house. People in the area stopped what they were doing and were either starring at Fayt and the others or starring at me. News of my sudden disappearance must have gotten out all over the place by now. As we crossed one intersection I stopped walking and looked at one of the houses.

"Wait," I said. Everyone stopped, Flad looked up at the house and then back at me. He knew very well why I had stopped walking.

"What is it?" Asked Fayt.

"You know someone who lives there?" Asked Sophia.

"That's where I lived with my parents, before the fire."

* * *

FLASHBACK

_I had come back from doing some shopping. Mom had sent me to the store to get a few items she need. As I arrived back home I gasped. I dropped the bag and ran towards my house. The whole building was on fire and the fire fighters had arrived and were trying to put out the fire. _

"_Mom! Dad!" I exclaimed. I tried to run towards the door but the nearby security guard stopped me. _

"_No! It's too dangerous to go in there!" Exclaimed the guard. _

"_But my parents are in there!" I protested . _

"_We are putting out the fire as quick as we can, but first we have to break open the holographic door, it seems to broken and sealed the exit tight," said a nearby fire fighter. For the next hour the fire fighters struggled to put out the fire. They finally managed to get it out and they broke the holographic door open. I ran inside but I stopped as I saw the sight in front of my eyes. Mom and Dad were on the ground and they weren't showing any signs of being alive. _

"_NO! Mom, Dad!" I exclaimed as I ran over to them. Tears started forming in my eyes as I started shaking their bodies. "No, you can't die! You can't!" I looked over at the nearby fire fighter. "They aren't dead are they?" The fire fighter lowered his head. _

"_They were trapped and they caught on fire. They were burned alive," said the fire fighter gravely. Tears started pouring down my cheeks as I heard him say that. _

"_No! This can't be happening! No! Mom! Dad! Don't leave me all alone! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I collapsed and started sobbing. Within a few days there was a funeral. Mom and Dad's bodies were burned to ashes and they were put into memory vases and put in the shrine where everyone else who dies is put. _

_I remained on the streets of Arkives, cold and alone. I didn't have any other family members like uncles and aunts. What would I do from here? How could I live my life alone like this? _

"_Young Rothrock, I presume?" Asked a voice. I looked up to see a man standing in front of me. He wore a white outfit decorated in gold designs. The sleeves were black with two gold rings at the bottom part of the sleeve. The skirt like part of his outfit was black on two sides. I recognized this outfit, it was the outfit that the owner of the Sphere Company has to wear. He had long brownish blonde hair and grey eyes. He had a very rough look to his face. _

"_Yes, I am Alex Rothrock," I said slowly. _

"_I was looking for you. You see, in your father's will he said that he wanted you to take his place in the Sphere Company. With the laws of this world, since you come from a wealthy family you will be sent to work at the Sphere Company. But you are too young to take the job yet. You will join the other young children and will be trained until the day you are ready." The man held out his hand towards me. "Come with me." I reached out for his hand and he picked me up off the ground. _

END FLASHBACK

* * *

"Alex?" Asked Sophia. I looked over at her.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Are you ready to go yet?" I nodded.

"Yeah." I looked over at Flad. "Lead the way."

"Okay," said Flad. We continued walking towards Flad's house. Within ten minutes we had arrived at our destination. "I'm home!" Said Flad as we walked through the door.

"Welcome home," said Flad's mother. She looked from her son over to me and the others. "It's been awhile Alex, who are those people behind you?"

"They are both friends and comrades of mine," I said.

"I see..." Based on her expression it seems that she wasn't too happy about this. But somehow that didn't surprise me. Flad led us to the next room where there was several couches, chairs, and various machines. Flad sat down in one of the seats and pulled up a holograph screen. He looked up at Fayt.

"So what's your name? Where you from?" Asked Flad.

"Why do you ask?" Asked Fayt with a tone of confusion. Flad simply shrugged.

"Just curious."

"I'm Fayt Leingod and I am from Earth." Flad started typing something in and he looked back up at Fayt.

"Oh, so you live in the Milky Way sector. Wow, things sure are chaotic in there right now." What Flad said seemed to have interested Fayt and the other's because they moved in closer to watch what was happening on the screen. The Executioners were flying around destroying anything they found.

"Hey, those are the Executioners," said Cliff.

"How can you see events going on in our galaxy?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Simple, I just access a terminal to the Eternal Sphere and I can watch the events going on in it."

"The Eternal Sphere?" Asked Sophia.

"Hey kid, what the hell is the Eternal Sphere?" Asked Cliff. I looked over at Flad.

"I'll explain it to them. Back me up if I miss any details," I said. Flad nodded.

"Okay, the floor is yours," said Flad. I cleared my throat and started talking.

"It's time I told you the truth. The Eternal Sphere is a simulator of a universe, you could call it a universe of virtual reality. The Milky Way galaxy, which is where you are from, is part of this universe. To sum it up: you and everything else in your universe is nothing but data in a computer program. The beings of this universe created the Eternal Sphere." There wad dead silence amongst Fayt and the others. I was half expecting for their jaws to drop down onto the ground.

"You mean that..." Started Peppita.

"We are nothing more than just..." Continued Dr. Leingod.

"Programs?" Finished Sophia.

"That can't be true! There's just no way!" Exclaimed Fayt.

"It is the truth. All of you are characters from this simulator," added Flad.

"So we are just puppets for you people to manipulate?" I shook my head.

"No, we do not control your minds. We let you live your own independent lives. However we do occasionally interfere with events of the Eternal Sphere. But now something has gone wrong with the Creator and he made us create the Executioners," I said.

"And you all have individual AI programs unique to each and every one of you alone. So you can't be controlled with a joystick or anything," said Flad.

"Alex, does that mean that the Executioners are programs too?" Asked Maria.

"That's right, that's all they are. Just deadly programs that shouldn't exist," I said.

"Did you help create the Eternal Sphere?" Asked Peppita.

"Yeah, I helped Luther create the Eternal Sphere. I was a top member of that project."

"But if we are just data, how can we exist here?" Asked Sophia.

"Now that I don't understand," said Flad.

"It stumps me too," I said with a shrug.

"It's because of the Alteration gene inside of Maria, it allows us to exist in this universe," explained Dr. Leingod.

"I still find the whole idea hard to believe," said Cliff.

"I agree," said Albel. Flad looked over at me.

"I don't think it is possible to convince them of the truth here, they have to see it for themselves. You should probably take them to the terminal in Gemity," said Flad.

"Good idea. By the way Flad, have you talked to Blair lately?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Just curious. I figured that you would have been one of the first people to know since Blair usually tells you news like that when ever it happens."

"Yeah, she told me everything. That reminds me in Gemity they are offering the new upgrade to all of their weapons, including swallows. You should upgrade your swallow while you are there."

"Okay, thanks for the news."

"No problem. Well, I wish you luck in stopping th Executioners."

"Thanks, well see you later Flad."

"See ya." We left Flad's house and we stopped to talk about what to do next.

"In order to get to Gemity, we have to use the Space-Time Transporter. It's this way, follow me," I said.

"What kind of city is Gemity?" Asked Sophia.

"It's an amusement city, a city created for only one purpose: Entertainment." I grinned. "I can't exactly describe the place, you'll have to see it for yourself.

"Lead the way," said Fayt.

"Alright, follow me." We continued walking until we found the entrance to the Space Time Station. We walked through the doors towards the transporter.

* * *

_I was glad that Fayt and the others would get this chance to see my world, to see that not all of us are bad guys. It was also for the better that they learn the truth about their universe. What Vox told me earlier troubled me a little bit. But a lot of the time I just cast it aside as if it wasn't important at all. If I had known the truth back then I would n't have thought so little of it. How could I have missed something THAT big?

* * *

_

I should have the next chapter finished in the next few days or so. Even as you are reading this I have part of the next chapter finished already. Anyway, please review.


	9. The Truth Before Their Eyes

Thank you all who reviewed! Anyway, you should know the drill by now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean

* * *

Chapter 9: The Truth Before Their Eyes

"Well this is it," I said as I looked over at the transporter.

"So this transporter will take us to Gemity, right?" Asked Sophia.

"Yeah. Anyway, let's go. Nothing will happen if we just stay here." We walked into the transporter and within a few seconds we were at Gemity.

"Transportation here feels different than it does in our Universe," commented Dr. Leingod as we walked out of the transporter.

"Yeah, it felt more like I was being picked up and thrown towards the destination," said Maria.

"It's because of our, if you'll excuse me for stating such an obvious fact, more advanced technology," I said.

"Good point."

"Wait till you see Gemity itself."

We walked out of the Space-Time station and I looked over at the others. The look on their faces was priceless. Their jaws were hanging open and their eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"Wow!" Exclaimed Sophia.

"Impressive!" Said Dr. Leingod.

"It's so bright," said Peppita.

"Okay, this hits the fact that these people created our Universe home," said Cliff.

"It sure does," said Fayt.

"This place is quite different from that Arkives place," said Albel.

"Alex, show us to the terminal. We have don't have a moment to lose," said Maria. I sighed, I figured that Maria would be the one to rush us all off.

"Alright, alright. First I have to go to the store and upgrade my swallow. I'll be right back, you guys stay here," I said.

"Okay, just don't keep us waiting."

"Don't worry, I won't take too long."

"Well knowing how dumb you are, we will be lucky if you only get lost for an hour," said Maria with a grin. Everyone let out a chuckle.

"Hey! That was really mean!" I exclaimed with a tone of mock hurt.

"I know. Now get going already!" Said Maria as she pushed me away. I walked over to the nearby weapon shop and went inside.

"Ah, I knew that you would be coming sooner or later Mr. Rothrock," said the shop keeper.

"Yeah, so what is this new upgrade?" I asked.

"It allows you to switch your blades to various forms. You can make it into a metal blade, blunt metal blade, stun blade, and regular laser blade. You can also change the color of the laser blades," explained the store keeper.

"Awesome! How much does it cost?"

"15,000 Fol."

"Okay, I'll buy it," I said as I put down 15,000 Fol and my swallow onto the counter.

"Thank you, I'll upgrade your swallow right away." The store keeper took the swallow and put it into the upgrader. It started glowing and a few seconds later the light faded. The store keeper handed me my swallow. "You can change the blades with the small button on the side of the handle."

"Thanks," I said as I took the swallow and put it away.

"Your welcome." I left and headed back to where the others were waiting. "I'm back. Now, let's go to the Eternal Sphere terminal."

"Show the way," said Fayt. We started walking towards the central part of Gemity where the terminal was. As we arrived at the central part I stopped walking and looked around.

* * *

FLASHBACK

* * *

_Dad and I decided to go to Gemity while Mom was off visiting some old friends of hers. Dad had just bought me a gift but he wouldn't tell me what it was. As we left the store I pulled on his sleeve. _

"_What did you get for me Dad?" I asked eagerly. _

"_You will find out when we get back home," said Dad. He grinned at me. "But first, why don't we enjoy what Gemity has to offer?" _

"_Okay!" I said with a big smile on my face. I looked down at the ground and then I looked back up at my Dad as my smile faded away. "Dad?" _

"_Yeah?" Asked Dad. _

"_Why are you always working? A lot of employees at the sphere company go home everyday but you only come home occasionally. Do you have a more difficult job?" _

"_No, it's not that. I am just a simple employee. It's something else that keeps me busy all the time," said Dad as a look of concern and worry grew on his face. _

"_What are you working on?" Dad looked back at me with his signature grin and he patted me on the head. _

"_I'll tell you all about it when you are old enough. It would be hard for you to understand it right now." _

"_Okay..." _

"_Come on, turn that frown upside down and let's go enjoy ourselves." _

"_Alright, let's go!" I said as I mimicked Dad's grin. For several hours we spent time enjoying the things that Gemity had to offer. After that we decided it was time to go home. When we got back to Arkives Dad gave me the package he bought for me. _

"_Okay Alex, you can open it now." Without a word or hesitation I opened up the box to see what was inside of it. My eyes widened in shock. _

"_A training swallow?" I asked. _

"_This is just between you and me, but I think it's time I at least taught you the basics of using a swallow. I want to pass down my skills to you." I smiled and hugged Dad. _

"_Thank you!" _

"_Your welcome. But you will keep this a secret from your mother, right? She would throw a fit if she found out I was teaching you how to fight at such a young age." _

"_Okay, I won't tell a soul." For the next week Dad taught me the basics of using a swallow. After Mom got back the lessons would either be held in the middle of the night or really early morning. _

"_You've gotten a lot stronger. If you keep this up you may end up becoming stronger than me one of these days," said Dad after training one day. Dad put on his signature grin. "I am very proud of you, Alex. And I would be very happy if you do surpass me. Just keep training hard."

* * *

_

END OF FLASHBACK

* * *

Dad's words stayed with me, ever since that day I have trained hard to become stronger. After my father died I was given his swallow which is the one I have used ever since. Suddenly, someone hit me across the head. I turned around to see Maria standing behind me.

"Ouch! What was that for?" I asked.

"Stop starring off to space and show us where the terminal is. Is zoning out one of your hobbies or something?" Asked Maria.

"No is just..." I sighed. "It's nothing." I took several steps and then I looked back at the others. "It's not too far from here." We continued walking until we reached a transporter. We walked into it and we were transported into the Eternal Sphere terminal. "This is it." I sat down in the seat and turned the device on. I pulled out my Identity disc and inserted it into the slot beneath the screen. I selected the Milky Way Galaxy but then a red screen popped up saying: Access denied. "Dammit. Since I'm not an Administrator I don't have access to the Milky Way Galaxy." I sighed.

"Alex, can I try?" Asked Sophia. I looked over at her.

"Sure, why not?" I started to get up.

"No, you can sit there. I just want to try something." Sophia walked towards the device and she touched it. Suddenly there was a loud buzz and Sophia jumped back. A new message appeared on the screen.

"System Administrator privileges granted?" I grinned and looked up at Sophia. "Well done, you managed to get us connected to the Milky Way!"

"I did? All I did was touch it and wished that I could go to the Milky Way," said Sophia who seemed pretty shocked.

"It's because of the Connection gene," said Dr. Leingod.

"It's a good thing we can use our powers in this universe too," said Fayt. I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I don't get how that's even possible but it's a good thing," I said.

"It sure is," said Maria.

"So where do you guys want to go?" I asked.

"Anywhere is fine with me," said Sophia.

"Alright then, I will just pick a planet we have been to before." I selected Elicoor II and then the device started glowing. Within a matter of seconds we were transported to Elicoor II. I could feel the rush of power flow into me as my attack programs loaded back into me.

"Hey, this is..." Started Fayt.

"A boring world," said Albel. We were on the fields between Arias and Kirlsa.

"Wow, without using the Time Gate we were able to get this far!" Exclaimed Cliff.

"Then I guess we have no choice but to believe what Alex and Flad said is true," said Sophia.

"Yeah..." Said Peppita.

"But even if we are programs we have to exist, this has to be reality for us, right?" Asked Maria as she looked over at me. I took a deep breath and sighed.

"At first, before I got to know you guys, I would have said: 'No you don't exist. You are just data, corrupt data.' I both hated and feared you guys, but then slowly I started to see that Luther and I were wrong. You really do exist. Why? Because you have the very element that makes you human. You have a consciousness, each and every one of you. You all have free will to make your own choices. With that you are our equals, not just data."

"Your right, we really do exist. Thank you Alex," said Maria with a smile.

"That's right, if we give up now it's all over," said Albel.

"We have come this far we can't quit now," said Dr. Leingod.

"Your right, we can't let down all of those who have died in the name of the Executioners," said Fayt.

"We gotta stop those freaks," said Peppita.

"We just have to believe and we will succeed," said Sophia.

"That's right, we gotta teach that Creator guy a lesson," said Cliff.

"Now that you know the truth I think it's time we had a word with the Sphere Company, what do you say?" I asked.

"I think your right. Now let's go back to..."

"What are you guys doing back here?" Asked a voice. We looked over to see Nel.

"Nel?" Asked Cliff.

"It's good to see you again," said Fayt.

"Likewise what are you doing here?" Asked Nel.

"Well..." Fayt explained the entire situation to Nel.

"I see, that is very troubling news. Everything... doomed to be destroyed." Nel folded her arms. "Then what are we doing here? Let's go and take care of this problem."

"What?" Exclaimed Fayt.

"You heard what I said. I am not standing down and watching these events go by. I want to help you guys." Fayt looked over at us.

"Are you okay if she comes with us?"

"It's alright with me," I said.

"I don't see why not," said Sophia.

"It's fine with me," said Maria.

"Alright then, welcome aboard," said Fayt.

"Glad to join you guys," said Nel. We walked back onto the square and we were transported back to Gemity.

"So what now?" Asked Sophia.

"We go to the Sphere Company," I said.

"How do we get there?" Asked Cliff.

"Simple, we use the Space-Time transporter. Since I have access to the Sphere Company it will be easy for us to go over there." We left the Eternal Sphere terminal and headed back to the Space-Time Station.

"Did you enjoy your stay? Where would you like to go?" Asked the security guard.

"We would like to go to Sphere Company," said Fayt.

"Please give me your names."

"I'm Alex Rothrock," I said.

"I'm Fayt Leingod," said Fayt.

"I am Robert Leingod," said Dr. Leingod.

"I'm Sophia Esteed," said Sophia.

"I am Maria Traydor," said Maria.

"I'm Peppita Rosetti," said Peppita.

"The name's Albel," said Albel.

"I am Nel Zelpher," said Nel.

"Thank you, give me a moment," said the security guard. He walked away and he came back a minute or two later. "I'm sorry but only one of you have access to the Sphere Company. That would be you Mr. Rothrock." Damn, I thought this might happen. "But according to a recent report from the Sphere Company, anyone in Mr. Rothrock's party is allowed to go to there." I let out a mental sigh of relief. The only one who would arrange something like that would be none other than Blair.

"Really? That's good," said Fayt who sounded relieved. I turned around to face everyone.

"This is not going to be easy. If they are expecting us be ready for an attack," I said.

"Sounds like fun," said Albel.

"We have no choice, we have to go regardless of what awaits us," said Maria.

"Your right, let's just hope that they haven't found out that I have turned against them," I said.

"What would they do if they caught you?" Asked Peppita.

"I would be labeled a traitor and executed," I said calmly.

"You sound pretty calm even though you know what risks are involved in this for you," said Nel.

"I have no choice but to go, it's the only thing I can do." I looked over at the security guard. "We are ready to go."

"Alright, step into the transporter." We walked in and within a matter of seconds we were transported to the Sphere Company. In front of us was a group of security guards with their guns aimed at us. Behind them was Azazer.

"Welcome back, Alex. We heard word that you had arrived at Arkives not to long ago. But why didn't you contact us right away?" Asked Azazer. I didn't say anything. "It also seems like the anomalies followed you."

"You're a master at stating the obvious," I said. Azazer ignored my comment and continued talking.

"Though I really do not know how you managed to outwit security but that doesn't matter right now."

"What about that report? They said anyone traveling with Alex could go to Sphere with him," said Cliff.

"What are you talking about? There never was any report." Azazer folded his arms. "Hmm... most interesting. I guess I will have to look into this later, I might find a rat or two."

"Alex, who is this guy?" Asked Fayt.

"That's Azazer. He is the head of security, anything he finds out is reported directly to the Owner of this company," I explained.

"Though I suppose the research department will be thanking you for this Alex," said Azazer.

"What are you talking about?"

"The research department finds those anomalies behind you extremely fascinating. It's hard to believe that data is able to exist outside of a computer. Many of the researches are interested in studying them."

"So you want us to be test subjects?" Asked Maria.

"That's right. If you assist us we won't delete you."

"If we cooperate, will you stop the Executioners that you have released into our galaxy?" Asked Fayt.

"No, that's simply not possible. The Milky Way galaxy is so badly infected that it must be destroyed. You will be all that remains of that galaxy."

"Forget it then!"

"Do you really have such a problem with that?"

"Of course we do!" Exclaimed Sophia.

"If you think we are just going to sit down like dogs, you are wrong!" Exclaimed Peppita.

"She's right, we won't back down!" Said Nel.

"I figured this would happen. Once a bug, always a bug. I will have to apologize to the research department later," said Azazer. He looked over at me. "It's a good thing you came when you did. I could use an extra hand in squashing these bugs. You may be nowhere near as strong here as your are in the Eternal Sphere but it will be enough to crush them." I didn't say anything and I didn't move. "What's wrong with you?" I got into a fighting stance. Azazer looked shocked. "No! You don't mean that... surely you are aware of what this means. You are a traitor! You know very well what happens to traitors."

"I am very well aware of the risks involved in my decision, and don't call me 'surely'," I said.

"You of all people? I would never have expected you to betray us."

"I saw the Eternal Sphere for what it really is: A parallel universe. We've got no right sending in the Executioners. That universe belongs to them not us!"

"This is unbelievable. Very well then, I will defeat you and then report this to the Owner. You know that he isn't going to take this news very well. Tonight we will witness your execution." I charged past the security guards and I closed in on Azazer. I threw a punch and him and he blocked it. He countered my attack by throwing a punch at me. I jumped aside and threw a kick at him. He caught my leg and then twisted it while pulling it up, causing me to go spinning up into the air and land onto the ground painfully. I rolled away as Azazer tried to slam his sword down on me. He slashed at me several times as I got up. I managed to dodge all of the attacks except one of them. Azazer's last slash managed to cut the skin on my face from the right part of my forehead all the way to the left cheekbone. I stumbled back and wiped the blood away from my eye. I activated my swallow and switched it to stun mode.

"So you want to fight with weapons? Very well then." I charged towards Azazer and jabbed at him with my swallow. He parried the attack, I spun my swallow and slashed at Azazer with the other end. He blocked that attack and then he slashed at me. I blocked it with one of the swallow's blades. I deactivated my swallow and slammed Azazer in the jaw with the handle. I spun my swallow again and I activated it back to stun mode. Azazer charged in and kicked me in the gut. The wind was knocked out of me and I stumbled back. Just as Azazer started to slash his sword down towards me I suddenly felt like I was being torn apart. Within less than a second I was on the other side of the room.

"What the? How did you do that?" Exclaimed Azazer. I didn't reply but I fell to the ground. I didn't know why but my entire body was in a lot of pain for some odd reason. Whatever this reason was I couldn't get up. Azazer seemed to notice this as well. "Doesn't matter, this is where this battle ends." Azazer started walking towards me.

"Magic hook!" Exclaimed a voice behind Azazer. He turned around just in time to get smacked in the face by a large bead. He stumbled back and almost fell over. Fayt, Sophia, Maria, Cliff, Albel, Nel, and Peppita were standing a few feet away from Azazer ready to fight. Azazer looked over at his security guards to see that they were all knocked out or dead.

"Your just data!" Exclaimed Azazer. He rushed towards them with his sword ready. Within a minute or so Azazer was defeated. He stumbled back to the main desk. He typed something in and then pressed a button. "Don't... think you've... won..." Azazer collapsed onto the ground. Fayt and the others walked over to me.

"Are you alright?" Asked Maria. I slowly started to get up.

"Yeah, I'm fine now," I said.

"What exactly happened back there? We saw that you were about to get injured by that Azazer guy and then all of a sudden you were surrounded by this weird dark energy that encircled you. The energy disappeared and then reappeared back at the point you are standing at with you inside of it," explained Cliff.

"I have no idea, but it felt really weird. It felt like being transported only a little different. It was more like I faded from existence and came back at a different point."

"Here," said Nel. An symbological array appeared in front of her hand and the wound on my face closed up. "I was able to close the wound to stop the bleeding but that is going to leave you with a scar."

"Thanks," I said.

"Alarm activated," said the screen on the front desk. Azazer had set time on the thing so it would go off in a mater of seconds.

"The alarm system!" Exclaimed Cliff.

"Let's keep going!" I said. We rushed through the door and towards the stair case. For the next few floors or so we continued walking and looking for a way up to the next floor. As we walked into an empty office I stopped walking as another memory came to me.

* * *

FLASHBACK

* * *

_After the Owner of the Sphere Company had come to pick me up, he guided me to an empty office where a group of other kids were. _

"_These are the other children who will get jobs here once they are old enough," said the Owner. I walked over to them and the Owner left. No one spoke a word to each other. _

"_So they have brought in another one of us," said the boy with blonde hair. _

"_Yeah," I said slowly. _

"_So who are you?" _

"_I'm Alex Rothrock," I said as a little smile appeared on my face. The boy smiled as well. _

"_I'm Luther Lansfeld," said the boy as he held out his hand. I extended my hand and we shook hands. Luther pointed over to the girl with grey hair. "This is my sister Blair." Blair nodded. "The one with blackish gray hair is Azazer, the one with black hair and darker skin is Berial, and the one with brownish-blonde hair is Belzeber." _

"_Nice to meet all of you," I said. Luther and I continued to talk and in a matter of days we became the best of friends. Day in and day out we continued to work and study so that one day we could take the jobs we were mean to take. Whenever we were sent home I went to Luther and Blair's house. Overtime Luther and I started to see each other as brothers. I remember all of the time Luther, Blair, Belzeber, Azazer, Berial, and I spent together studying, working, eating, talking, and laughing.

* * *

_

END OF FLASHBACK

* * *

We continued walking around looking for our destination. Finally we came to a path that went straight and also went right into another room. I walked towards it in an attempt to open it.

"Damn, it's not opening," I said.

"There are quite a few doors that wouldn't open it's getting really annoying," said Cliff.

"What are we going to do now? There are no more stairways," said Sophia. Suddenly the doors and both ends of the hallway opened up and a bunch of security guards rushed in.

"Ah crap," I said.

"I don't think we will be able to handle this many," said Maria.

"Don't say stuff like that, it's really depressing!" Complained Cliff.

"This is not good," said Dr. Leingod as he looked at both sets of security guards slowly advancing towards us. I turned back to the door to see it open up and to see Blair standing there waiting for us.

"Blair!" I exclaimed.

"This way! Follow me!" Said Blair. I looked back at the othes.

"What are you waiting for? The apocalypse? This way!" We rushed through the entryway and it shut tight behind us.

"That was close," said Blair.

"Who are you?" Asked Fayt.

"Isn't it proper manners to introduce yourself before asking others Fayt Leingod?" Asked Blair. Fayt gasped in shock.

"How did you know my name?"

"Flad told me all about you guys."

"So you are the person that Flad and Alex were talking about," said Maria.

"That's right. My team and I want to help you out in your task."

"How do you plan on helping us?" Asked Cliff.

"You'll see, just follow me." As we were walking Blair looked over at me. "It's been awhile since I last saw you Alex. You are looking well."

"Yeah, it was a difficult journey back," I said. I took a deep breath and sighed. "Blair, about what you had said back at that meeting. I am really starting to believe it myself. These people aren't just data, they are real." Blair smiled.

"I knew at least someone would see the truth at some point. I guess you getting trapped in the Eternal Sphere helped you out a little." A look of concern grew on Blair's face.

"What's wrong?"

"It's about the Executioner you made, Omega."

"You mean it's sudden change of behavior and the change of the energy it gives off?"

"That's right, we investigated this incident and we found something really weird."

"What did you find?"

"You'll have to see for yourself, it's rather hard to believe so brace yourself." I didn't say anything else and we continued walking towards the office.

* * *

_When Omega's behavior suddenly changed I thought it was just some glitch in one of it's algorithms. But the truth is, what really caused the change wasn't anything I could have possibly predicted. All of these weird things happening confused me. "What does all of this mean? Are any of these odd events connected?" Those were my thoughts and questions back then.

* * *

_

So what caused the incident with Omega? And how are these strange events connected? Fear not, the answers are coming sooner than you think... well some of them at any rate. Anyway, please review.


	10. The Mystery deepens

Thank you all who reviewed! Anyway, onto the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean.

* * *

Chapter 10: The mystery deepens

"This is part of the staff that developed the Eternal Sphere," said Blair as we walked into the office. Everyone in the office stood up as we got closer.

"So you said you wanted to help them right? What do you got in mind?" I asked.

"This," said one of the developers as they handed me a small laptop.

"An uninstaller? Nice."

"What does this thing do?" Asked Sophia.

"It will allow you to delete all of the Executioners instantly," said another one of the developers.

"Really?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Yes, that is correct."

"If you have such a handy tool why haven't you used it yet?" Asked Cliff.

"Because of it's limitations. The uninstaller can only be used in the Eternal Sphere. But the Milky Way Galaxy is locked," said Blair.

"So you want us to take this uninstaller back to our galaxy," concluded Maria.

"That is correct."

"So why are you helping us?" Asked Nel.

"We believe that the Executioners are a needlessly violent solution to the problem of symbological genetics being used in the Milky Way," said one of the Developers.

"We have tried to convince the others to stop this but they wouldn't listen," said Blair. I looked down at the ground.

"Yeah, we got all arrogant. We really believed that the Executioners were the right choice." I sighed. "We were a bunch of fools, weren't we?"

"So you have had a change of heart?" Asked one of the developers.

"Yeah, after that incident."

"What incident?" Asked Maria.

"The incident that lead to me meeting you guys," I said as I looked over at Maria.

"So what happened?" I explained what happened, about the job Luther assigned me and how things went wrong.

"If that incident had never occurred I would still be supporting the Executioners. It's safe to say that I am grateful that incident happened." I looked over at Blair. "Now that we have that taken care of, can you show me the data on Omega?"

"Hold on, let me load it up," said Blair. She accessed the data and a screen popped up of Omega's regular programming. "This is what it looked like before Omega's change in behavior." Blair typed something in. The data changed from symbological symbols to hexadecimal coding. "This is after."

"What the hell?" I rushed towards the screen and took a closer look at it. "Impossible! Who could convert symbology into a hexadecimal variables? The Eternal Sphere doesn't support that kind of coding!" I looked over at Blair. "How could this have happened?"

"I have no idea. We have scanned the data a lot of times and we didn't find anything."

"But who would do something like that? And why?" Asked Maria.

"Sure wish I knew the answer to that myself," I said with a shrug. This news really bothered me but I realized there were more important things right now. "But more importantly we have to get that uninstaller to the Eternal Sphere."

"You're right, let's go back to the terminal in Gemity," said Fayt.

"That won't work, the Sphere Company is now in lock down so you can't leave here," said Blair.

"So what should we do?" Asked Peppita.

"There is a terminal in this building, but there is one problem."

"What's that?" Asked Cliff.

"It's location."

"It's located on the top floor, that's Luther's office," I said.

"That's a problem how? That will kill two birds with one stone," said Albel.

"Luther has all the cards against us in this situation. If he were to get wind of what we were planning he would make a counter plan in a matter of seconds. Luther isn't dumb, he has amazingly high IQ. Not only that he could just slip into one of his protected domains in the Eternal Sphere and we wouldn't be able to follow him easily," I said gravely.

"This guy sounds pretty dangerous," said Sophia.

"This is nothing compared to once he is in the Eternal Sphere."

"Anyway, down the hallway to the right is the elevator that will take us to the top floor. I will take you there," said Blair. She grinned. "Though I won't be of much use in a fight."

"_Least not in the real world..." _I said in my thoughts. We walked down the hallway towards the elevator. The door closed and we looked up at the large shaft. Suddenly it turned off.

"What the?" Exclaimed Blair.

"Very disappointing Blair. I knew that we had somewhat different ideals but I never could have anticipated that you would betray me," said a voice. Blair and I gasped as we heard the voice.

"Owner!"

"Luther!" I exclaimed.

"And who could have thought? My own best friend, someone I call a brother. Why of all people did you betray me, Alex?" Asked Luther emotionlessly.

"Listen to me! It's not what you think it is!"

"Listen to us!" Exclaimed Blair.

"I'd hate to lose both of you but there is no avoiding that now. If that which is contaminated is not deleted it will infect anything that isn't corrupted. That infection is too dangerous, it must be destroyed. If both of you insist on standing in the way then you must be deleted too."

"Luther! Just talk to us! I can explain everything!" I exclaimed. There was no reply. "Luther!" I looked down at the ground.

"So he was one step ahead of us," said Dr. Leingod.

"Yeah..." Suddenly there was a crashing sound from behind the door.

"What was that?" Exclaimed Sophia as she looked over at the door. I turned around in the same direction. The door burst open and Berial and Belzeber walked in.

"Well, well, if it isn't Belzeber and Berial," I said.

"Look at this, it's Alex and Blair. I must say that you two have been very reckless," said Belzeber. He looked over at me. "You betrayed the owner." Belzeber looked over at Blair. "And you also betrayed the owner."

"What were you thinking? Don't you realize what risks are involved in this?" Asked Berial.

"I am very well aware of the risks, but regardless I will stop the Executioners no matter what it takes," I said. Belzeber smirked.

"Well aren't you determined?" Taunted Belzeber. He pulled out his communicator. "Owner, we will take care of these pests. You go and take a nap or whatever." There was no reply. "Owner?" Still no reply. "Owner?" Belzeber looked over at Berial with a look of confusion. "He's not responding."

"I will try to contact him," said Berial as he pulled out his communicator. "Owner, is everything all right? Owner."

"Would you just shut up already?" Asked a voice.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"I have no idea, I've never heard that voice before," said Belzeber with a tone of worry. Okay, for Belzeber to be worried than that means this is not a good situation.

"Just ignore them," said a voice that I recognized.

"That's..." Started Fayt.

"Vox!" Exclaimed Nel.

"How did he get out of the Eternal Sphere?" Asked Peppita.

"This is just getting weirder by the second," said Maria.

"Vox is right. Let's continue our discussion," said Luther. Then I heard nothing but static come from the communicator.

"Damn, they must have destroyed the communicator," said Berial.

"This is very bad!" Exclaimed Blair.

"Blair is right, I believe that these people might be trying to take over the Sphere Company," said Belzeber. He looked over at me. "At this point who gives a damn about those anomalies? We have a bigger problem at the moment!"

"Your right, let's go up to the top level," I said. I looked over at Fayt and the others. "Come on you guys! We need to hurry!"

"Your right, we should go and see what is going on up there," said Fayt.

"I've got a very bad feeling about this," said Maria.

"My thoughts exactly," said Cliff. We rushed to the other elevators located around the center of this floor and we transported up to the 211th floor. We rushed in just in time to see Luther walking towards a spinning portal full of dark energy.

"Luther, wait!" I exclaimed. Luther turned around and looked at me. The look in his eyes gave me chills. No longer did he have the kind look in his eyes but the look of a lunatic.

"This is where it begins, Alex," said Luther. Luther grinned evilly. "Follow me if you dare." Luther walked through the portal and disappeared.

"Damn, he got away," I said.

"But where is he going?" Asked Sophia.

"Who knows?" Said Belzeber with a shrug. I looked around at the office trying to find any trace of Vox and that other person who were here. On Luther's desk was the destroyed communicator. Berial picked up the remains.

"Any ideas on how this thing could have been destroyed?" Asked Berial.

"I have no idea," I said.

"May I have a look at it?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Here," I said as I handed him the communicator. Dr. Leingod took a closer look at it, after a few seconds he looked back up.

"It was destroyed by some sort of energy that took the shape of a kunai."

"I see, I know for a fact that Luther wouldn't be able to use an attack like that in this universe."

"Vox doesn't know how to use an attack like the one Dr. Leingod described," said Albel.

"That leaves one person," said Maria.

"Yeah, whoever it was they were responsible for that attack," said Nel.

"Before we start worrying about what in the hell is going on here, we have to take care of something else first," said Cliff.

"That's right, we have to get rid of the Executioners," said Fayt. I looked over at Berial and Belzeber.

"Are you two okay with that?" I asked.

"I really could not care less," said Belzeber with a shrug.

"The Executioners are insignificant at the moment," said Berial.

"According to the data on this terminal it seems like Luther has gone to his private lab in the Eternal Sphere. Once you have taken care of the Executioners we will discuss what to do next," said Blair.

"Okay," I said.

"Alex, you must get to the bottom of this. I want to know what is really going on here," said Berial.

"Will do." I walked into the transporter.

"Blair thanks for everything. We will save the Eternal Sphere, don't you worry," said Maria. Maria walked into the Teleporter.

"I don't know what's really going on but thank you," said Peppita. Peppita walked into the Teleporter.

"Thank you for your help, we will take it from here," said Dr. Leingod. Dr. Leingod walked into the teleporter.

"Thank you for all you have done to help us," said Sophia. Sophia walked into the teleporter.

"You really helped us out, thanks Blair," said Cliff. Cliff walked into the teleporter.

"We won't forget your kindness," said Nel. Nel walked into the teleporter.

"We owe you one," said Albel. Albel walked into the teleporter.

"Blair, thank you," said Fayt as he shook her hand.

"You are the only ones who can save your galaxy now. Give it your best shot," said Blair. Fayt walked into the teleporter. Blair walked over to the terminal and activated it. Within a few seconds we were teleported to Styx. As we arrived we were greeted by two Executioners.

"Great welcoming party, huh?" I asked.

"Some how I saw this coming," said Maria. Sophia pulled out the uninstaller.

"I'll activate the uninstaller," said Sophia.

"Alright, we will cover you," said Fayt.

"I'll stay back and help Sophia," I said.

"Good idea since you are familiar with this technology," said Cliff. Sophia opened up the uninstaller and various data charts popped up. They showed statistics like how many Executioners we currently in the galaxy and what power level they were set at.

"What do I do now?" Asked Sophia.

"Access that table and then combine the symbols," I said. Sophia did what I told her to do and then looked back up at me.

"What now?"

"Delete that set of symbols, combine that set, and then split it."

"Then you reverse the two sets right?" I nodded.

"Yeah that's right."

"Alright I think I can take it from here. Thanks for the help," said Sophia.

"Don't mention it. Just trying to help." I looked up to watch the battle. Nel healed Cliff who had gotten a nasty cut from the Enforcer. Fayt stabbed into one of the Enforcer's wings causing it to roar out in pain. Maria rolled underneath the enforcer and shot several blasts into the lower parts of it's face. Not to far from the others, Albel and Peppita were fighting the Proclaimer. Peppita whacked the Proclaimer on the head with on of her oversized beads and then Albel cut off the Proclaimer's head.

"There! Done!" Exclaimed Sophia. I turned around to see the screen of the uninstaller flashing. Suddenly the Enforcer started glowing and it exploded. Out in the distance you could hear similar explosions. We walked around to see if there were anymore Executioners, there were none.

"Is it over?" Asked Fayt.

"Yes, it seems like it," said Dr. Leingod.

"We did it!" Exclaimed Sophia.

"At last, it's over," said Maria with a sigh of relief.

"Now it's time to celebrate!" Exclaimed Cliff. I smiled.

"You guys have fun, I still have some work to do. Got to clean up the mess Luther left and get some answers," I said.

"Ah, well come to our party on the Diplo when your done!" Said Cliff.

"Since when was there going to be a party on the Diplo?" Asked Maria.

"Simple, Lancar and I arranged it. Steeg and Lieber had a hand in it too," said Cliff.

"And you didn't even tell me? I could have helped out..." Said Maria.

"You? Help organize a party? I thought you were all business and no fun," I said with a grin.

"How dare you?" Asked Maria in mock hurt.

"Well it's the truth." Maria punched me in the arm lightly.

"That wasn't very nice."

"I know." My grin disappeared. "Well, now's not the time for celebrating for me. You guys go and party, I will join you later."

"Alright, see you later Alex," said Fayt.

"Be careful, Alex," said Maria. I nodded and started walking towards the Time Gate. Suddenly the ground started shaking violently.

"What's happening?" Asked Fayt. I looked up as a dark circle appeared in the sky. As I sensed the energy I gasped.

"It can't be!" I exclaimed.

"What is it?" Asked Cliff.

"This isn't over yet! Here comes the other type of Executioner, the Convictor!" I exclaimed. The Convictor popped it's head out of the circle and then it landed on the ground. "What is Luther thinking? Those things are too dangerous to use in the Eternal Sphere!"

"It's stronger than any other Executioner we have ever fought before," said Maria as she pulled out her gun. We pulled out our weapons and got ready to fight the Convictor. We charged towards our target. I got there first and I slashed the Convictor with one of the blades of my swallow. I ducked as Maria opened fire on the Convictor. Next up was Cliff who unleashed a fury of punches on the Convictor. Fayt and Albel rushed in at the same time and slashed at the Convictor. Sophia struck the Convictor with lightning bolt and Peppita delivered a kick to the Convictor's face. The Convictor brought it's arm around and knocked Cliff, Maria, and I down to the ground. The others covered us while we got back up. As we were about to launch another assault on the Convictor it threw it's arms forward sending a wave of energy blasts at us. The force of the attack send us all back flying to the ground.

I was able to get up first and I charged towards the Convictor. I slashed several times at the Convictor but each hit missed.

"Die!" Exclaimed the Convictor as it aimed it's hand at me. I looked down to see wind starting to pick up under my feet.

"You've got to be kidding!" I exclaimed as I realized I had fallen right into the Convictor's attack. The dark brown cyclone appeared and I was sent flying up into the air. The force of the air created various cuts all over my body. I fell to the ground and I wasn't able to get back up. I saw the others charge in and start fighting the Convictor. This was not good, we were having a lot of trouble fighting this thing. Though I did notice one thing, it seems like Fayt and Maria were starting to get a grasp on their powers. With just a little training they could learn how to use their powers perfectly and effectively. I looked up to see Peppita get caught in one of the Convictor's tornadoes, she was thrown down to the ground really hard. After that the Convictor had brought it's arm down at her. Peppita tried to get out of the way and almost did... but unfortunately she hadn't gotten away completely. The Convictor's attack and broken both of her legs, preventing her from getting up. I started to get up. The Convictor was about to release another attack. I quickly pressed the emergency power up function on my debugging tool.

I felt the surge of power come into me and I saw the bolts of energy start crackling around me. I rushed forward with blinding speed.

"SLASH STORM!" I yelled. I slashed my swallow through the Convictor, I slid behind it and then slashed it again. I unleashed a fury of stabs with several more slashes. I jumped up into the air. "GLIDING STRIKE!" I zoomed down towards the Convictor and I slashed my swallow through it. I landed in front of the Convictor and I took several steps away from it. The Convictor fell to the ground and it didn't get back up. We were all breathing heavily from that tough battle.

"That was close," said Maria.

"It's smaller but so much more powerful," said Cliff. I walked over to where Peppita was.

"This doesn't look good, she's not going to be able to walk with her legs in that condition," I said. The attack had rendered Peppita unconscious and based on what I now about the Convictor's attacks, there was more damage than just broken bones.

"She isn't going to die is she?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"If it were just the bones in her legs that broke than this wouldn't be that big of a problem."

"If it were just the bones? What do you mean?" Asked Sophia.

"That attack the Convictor used was made to disable the opponent completely, make it easier for the Convictor to kill them. Upon impact not only does it break the bone but it also destroys everything surrounding the bone."

"What? Then that means..." Started Fayt.

"Yes, the muscle in her legs were almost destroyed, the blood vessels were badly damaged, and to all of you who know human anatomy then you know there is more damage than that in this case. But she was smart to try to get out of the way. If that had hit anywhere that had a vital organ she would be dead right now."

"Can runology or symbology heal any of the damage?" Asked Nel.

"A little bit, but not enough for a full recovery," I said.

"Then I will at least heal some of the damage." Nel walked over to Peppita. She put her hands on the damaged parts of Peppita's legs and her hands started glowing and Peppita was covered in a wave of yellow light. After a minute or two had passed Nel's hands stopped glowing and the yellow light disappeared. "That should help a little bit."

"Everyone! Can you hear me?" Asked a voice from the Time Gate. We all turned around to see Blair standing in the middle of the Time Gate.

"Blair! What in the hell happened?" I asked.

"The uninstaller! It didn't work!" Exclaimed Sophia.

"That's the problem... we were tricked," said Blair.

"Tricked? How so?" Asked Fayt.

"It seems that the Owner anticipated the use of an uninstaller. He prepared a security program that wouldn't activate unless the uninstaller was used."

"Based on what that security program did... I must say that Luther is out of his mind," I said as I looked over at the corpse of the Convictor.

"Yes, I can't believe he decided to use those things. They weren't put into the Eternal Sphere for a reason."

"So what do we do now?" Asked Maria.

"It's simple, we have to find Luther and make him uninstall the security program," I said.

"Sounds like a plan, but how do we find him?" Asked Albel.

"As you know, he is now in his private lab inside of the Eternal Sphere. We need a special ID to get in there," said Blair.

"Special ID? What's that?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"A Special ID is a debugging tool left in the Eternal Sphere. Only those who understand what they are can use them. I believe you call them Out of Place Artifacts."

"So that's what all of those O.P.A.s really were? Who would have thought?" Asked Cliff.

"Now all we have to do is get an O.P.A. which should be pretty simple," said Maria.

"Yeah, I know where one is," I said.

"The one you made, right? The Sacred Orb, isn't that what you named it?" Asked Blair as she looked over at me.

"Yeah, that's the one."

"You made the Sacred Orb?" Asked Nel with a look of shock on her face.

"Yup, sure did."

"Okay, go get the Sacred Orb. Once you have obtained it contact me. I will try to find the entrance to Luther's private lab," said Blair.

"But Blair, what about opening the entrance to Luther's Private Lab? I am a system Moderator, not an administrator. I can use the Sacred Orb to talk to you but I can't use it to open the path," I said.

"Sophia will take care of that for you."

"I will?" Asked Sophia.

"You seem to have the power to connect to things and bypass any restrictions that exist, which gives you the same access privileges as Luther."

"Really? Good, that takes care of that problem," I said.

"Best of luck to all of you," said Blair. Blair disappeared. Cliff picked Peppita up and we started walking back towards our shuttle. As we left the nearby area we immediately noticed one thing.

"What the hell?" Asked Cliff.

"It must have been the Earthquake," said Maria.

"Let's just hope the Shuttle is okay," said Fayt. We started crossing the newly formed terrain but due to how much it had changed it took awhile to finally reach the area where our shuttle was. Unfortunately the shuttle had been destroyed and it was sitting in a pile of rocks.

"Damn it," I said.

"This is a problem," said Nel. Fayt looked over at Maria.

"Any transmissions?" Asked Fayt.

"Hold on a second, let me check," said Maria as she turned on her communicator. There was nothing but static.

"This sucks," said Albel.

"Wait a moment, I hear something." Among the static I could make out a voice in the background.

"Marietta!" Said Maria. The static cleared out.

"Hey everyone! I got Maria on the communicator!" Exclaimed Marietta.

"I see you guys are okay, what a relief," said Mirage.

"Yeah when we lost contact with the Aquaelie we didn't know what to think," added Marietta.

"Yeah we have been kind of busy," said Maria.

"Same here, we had a hard time getting away from the Executioners but we managed," said Mirage.

"Can you come pick us up?"

"Huh? What happened to the shuttle you took there?" Asked Marietta.

"It was destroyed during an incident on this planet."

"Roger, we will be there to pick you up soon," said Mirage.

"Alright, see you then," said Maria. Maria turned off her communicator. Almost two hours later Maria's communicator started beeping and we were all transported up. The first thing we did was get Peppita to the sick bay. Based on what they said it would take awhile but they would be able to heal Peppita. Maria told Mirage to set a course for Elicoor II and soon we zoomed off into gravitic space.

* * *

_I was starting to feel a bit annoyed. There were so many questions I had and yet few of them are getting answers. New questions and mystery popping up were starting to become a daily routine. I knew that our journey was almost over and at the time I believed that all of the questions would be answered at the final destination of our journey: Luther's private lab. But little did I know how wrong I was.

* * *

_

So their journey is starting to draw to a close. But what awaits our heroes? What is going on with Luther? Where does Vox come into any of this? Those answers are coming soon. Though I do have one thing I want to say about the next chapter. There is going to be a very slight cross over in the next chapter. What is this cross over going to be? Find out in the next chapter. Anyway, please review.


	11. The Vision

Yay reviews! Thank you all! Anyway, onto the Disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean, Kingdom Hearts, or Xenosaga.

* * *

Chapter 11: The vision

A group of people in black cloaks sat around a large table inside of the old mansion. The corners of the room were covered in cobwebs and there was dust all over the place. A black cloud appeared and shaped into a spinning black oval. As the cloud faded another man in a black cloak walked out.

"Welcome back Xigbar, did you get your job done?" Asked the man at the center of the table.

"Yes, I nudged Luther a little more. Now we just have to leave this to Vox," replied Xigbar as he took a seat.

"Speaking of Vox, why isn't he at this meeting?" Asked a man on the right.

"I gave him orders to watch over Alex and his comrades," said the man to the left of the man at the center.

"It's just a matter of time. Soon our plans shall fall into place," said the large muscular man in the seat to the left of Xigbar.

"That's going to be an awesome day! The day our objectives are finally completed!" Exclaimed the man to the right of Xigbar.

"Would you just chill out and shut up already, Demyx?" Asked Xigbar.

"You can't make me!" Exclaimed Demyx. While several of the men joined into the conversation/argument, the man in the center looked over at the man on the left.

"Tell me your opinion about the current situation," said the man in the center.

"But you are the Superior, what does it matter what I think?" Asked the man on the left.

"I am just curious, Saix."

"I agree with Xaldin, soon our plans shall fall into place. Once Vox completes his job everything will begin. We will also be able to retrieve her."

"Yes... she is very important. I knew you would bring her up." Saix didn't say anything for a moment, as if he was in deep thought.

"About Alex... he is HIS son, right?" Asked Saix after awhile.

"Yes, Alex is indeed the son of Aldax."

"I see, at least our plan kills two birds with one stone." The Superior chuckled.

"Exactly, at least none of us have to do any dirty work."

"And what of Luther?" Asked Xaldin.

"Once he fulfils his part in our plans he will be no longer needed. With some luck Fayt and his friends will get rid of him for us. But if they don't take him out..." Said Saix.

"We will have to dispose of him ourselves," finished the man to the right of Saix.

"You got that right," said the Superior.

* * *

Meanwhile back on the Diplo... (Alex's POV)

* * *

I was on the bridge with Maria. She was talking to Mirage about various things that I didn't bother to pay attention to. I remembered that I was planning on training Maria, Fayt, and Sophia how to use their powers. Since I knew a lot about symbology it wouldn't be that difficult. But first I wanted to know how much time we have till we reach Elicoor II.

"Mirage, how soon till we reach Elicoor II?" I asked.

"About a day and a half," replied Mirage.

"Good, that should be enough time."

"Enough time for what?" Asked Maria.

"I have decided to train you, Fayt, and Sophia how to use your powers effectively. It will come in handy if we encounter any more Convictors."

"Alright, I will call up Fayt and Sophia." Maria turned on the intercom. "Fayt and Sophia, please report to the bridge." Within a minute Fayt and Sophia arrived.

"What is it?" Asked Fayt.

"Alex has decided to teach us how to use our powers effectively."

"Really?" Asked Sophia.

"Yeah. Now the question is: is there anywhere in this ship big enough for training?" I asked.

"The hangar on the second basement of this ship. It is rarely used so it shouldn't be a problem," said Maria.

"Alright then, let's go," I said. We walked down to the hangar and I started teaching Fayt, Maria, and Sophia. Within several hours all three of them had learned a lot. To put their new skills to the test I made three tests, one for each of them. The first test was a sparring match with me, this was Fayt's test. Fayt had become unbelievably strong, he was able to cut a 10 foot cube made out of the hardest metal known to exist into two halves. Finally the time came when Fayt and I sparred together. I had a hard time keeping up with the speed of Fayt's attacks and enduring their power. At one point after I had blocked one of his attacks he zoomed in and slammed me in the gut with the back of his sword sending me flying back several feet.

"Wow Fayt, I think you overdid that last attack," said Sophia.

"Yeah your right, sorry Alex," said Fayt.

"It's no problem, it just shows that you have become really strong. Well done Fayt, you have passed your test," I said as I got up.

Maria also learned how to use her powers effectively during that training session. I taught her how to manipulate objects and reshape them into something else. At one point Maria made a sword out of water from a glass (and then launched it at me). Maria's test was simple, she had to manipulate various objects into other things and turn part of a wall into a door that could be opened.

"Well done Maria, you too have passed," I said after she finished her test.

Because of Sophia's power being the power of connection I thought at first that there wouldn't be much to work with. During that training session I was proven wrong. It turns out that Sophia can convert mirrors, sheets of glass, and anything else clear into a portal. But the one major limitation to this power was that Sophia could only transport to places she had been to before. Sophia also learned how to activate inactive portals and make them useable once more. Sophia's test was to teleport out of the hangar and teleport back in.

"Nicely done Sophia, you have passed as well." I cleared my throat and continued talking. "I must admit that I am very impressed with the progress you three have made today. If you apply these powers into combat you will become much stronger." For the next few hours I didn't do much. I sat in my room thinking about all that had happened. So many things have happened, so many questions and few of them have gotten any answers. Who was that mysterious person that was talking with Vox and Luther? How was this person involved in any of this? Was he part of Omega getting corrupted? Where does Vox come into the picture? I just hope that the answers will come soon. Once I have gotten all the answers to my questions I can go back to living my life the way I was before that incident, right? Thinking about these recent events brought back memories of the day Luther became the owner of the Sphere Company. We were both 17 at the time.

FLASHBACK

_Luther sat at the desk with the Owner outfit on. He looked very proud of his promotion. _

"_Hey, is it just me or does it seem like that outfit was made for you? Somehow it looks perfect on you," I said. Luther looked at his outfit. _

"_Yeah, I think you are right. It somehow DOES seem like this was made for me," said Luther. _

"_So what are you going to do with this company? " _

"_Right about that, I have the greatest idea for a business." _

"_Really? What is it?"_

"_How about we create a simulated universe? One where people from our world can go into and interact in?" Suggested Luther as a spark of creativity flared up in his. _

"_I like that idea, it sounds pretty interesting. Do you think we can use the technology available to us to accomplish something like that?" _

"_Of course! We will use Symbological Genetics to create the foundations and the entire universe will be coded in symbology." _

"_Oh yeah Symbological Genetics! I have heard that it is possible to use it as a code for programming." _

"_If we combine that with binary we should be able to make a complete replica of a universe that everyone will enjoy. It will make the Sphere Company really famous, I know it!" I smiled. _

"_I will do whatever I can to help!" _

"_Thanks, I knew I could count on you," said Luther as he returned the smile. Luther's face shifted to an all business/serious face. "Anyway, I have decided to give you the job as System Moderator of this simulated universe." My eyes widened in surprise. _

"_System Moderator? That's quite a job," I said. _

"_Yeah, I figured I should give you a good position in this company. Due to the laws of our world Blair has to be co-administrator. Moderator is the best position I can get you." I started chuckling. "What's so funny?" _

"_It's just with that face you really do look like one of those superior businessmen that are both successful and ruthless." Luther chuckled as well and then he put on the business face again. He pointed in a random direction. _

"_You! You aren't being paid to sleep at work! Get that work done now!" He pointed in another direction. "I don't care if you are tired, get that data table finished or I am going to cut your salary!" Luther folded his arms. "It's nothing personal, it's business!" We both exchanged glances at each other and we burst out in laughter. Later that day Luther held a meeting where he discussed his plans for the Sphere Company. At the end of the meeting Luther told us if we had any questions we should ask them now. _

"_I have a question," I said. _

"_What is it?" Asked Luther. _

"_Have you thought of a name for this simulator?" I asked. _

"_After awhile, I did come up with a name. I have decided to call it: The Eternal Sphere." _

END OF FLASHBACK

I looked up as the door opened. Cliff walked into my room.

"So this is where you were hiding," said Cliff.

"Were you looking for me?" I asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to let you know that dinner is ready. Just don't expect a 5-Star meal."

"Okay, thanks for the heads up," I said with a grin. We left my room and headed to the kitchen of the Diplo. As we were walking towards it I saw the door to the sick bay open up and Peppita came out sitting on a floating chair. "How are you feeling Peppita?" She looked over at us.

"A lot better that's for sure," said Peppita. She let out a sigh. "But my legs need time to heal so I have to sit in this thing all the time. They said I wouldn't be able to go with you guys."

"It might be better if you did stay here, you need to rest and relax. That is the only way to get better," said Cliff.

"I guess your right." Peppita seemed a little disappointed that she couldn't go with us.

"Don't worry Peppita, we will get the job done," I said.

"Alex is right, and once it's all done we are going to throw a big party on the Diplo!" Peppita looked up with a big grin on her face.

"Really? A party? I can't wait!" Exclaimed Peppita.

"Anyway, let's go to the kitchen." The three of us walked into the kitchen which wasn't too far from our current location. The dinner really wasn't anything worth mentioning. It was a bunch of sandwiches with various meats and other things in them.

"Alex, according to what Fayt, Sophia, and Maria said to me today you trained them how to use their powers, right?" Asked Dr. Leingod. I looked over at him and nodded.

"Yeah, that's right," I said.

"Do you think their new found powers will be enough to, if necessary, defeat the Creator?" I was silent for a moment. I started to realize that I was training the people who may end up taking my best friend's life.

"Yes, I think they will be able to defeat Luther." That night at dinner, no one really talked much. There was a lot on everyone's minds and I couldn't blame them. About an hour or so after dinner I went to bed. As I was about to lie down everything went black. I got up and looked around. "Wait, I didn't turn the light off... what's going on here?"

Suddenly a man appeared in front of me. He had shaggy, short brown hair and he had blue eyes and a scar ran down his right eye. He wore an all black outfit with a zipper in the center running from just below his neck to the very edge of the coat. On both sides of the zipper there were two lines of thread dangling down to the edge of his chest. On each end point was a beautifully carved bead. Overlapping the string and the zippers was a silver like chain necklace that hung from one end of the hood to the other. This man was wearing black gloves and strange black boots. I gasped as I realized who this man was.

"Father!" I exclaimed.

"Alex, there is something I must tell you," said my Father.

"What is it?"

"It's about the true, hidden purpose that the Eternal Sphere has."

"True purpose? The Eternal Sphere was designed for entertainment."

"On the upper level, yes that is true. But deep within the hard drive of the Eternal Sphere is a seal."

"A seal?"

"Yes, a seal that is protecting a very important place. If someone were to try and delete the Eternal Sphere, right before it is deleted the seal will emerge. If this happens, you must not let the seal be destroyed."

"I don't understand, why are you asking this of me? What could I do? And why would I be in the Eternal Sphere when it is being deleted?"

"_The only one who can find the answers to those questions is you," _said a voice behind me. I snapped around to see a small girl with orange hair and blue eyes. She wore an all white dress and brownish black shoes. Around her neck was a small cross with some sort of purple colored jewel shaped like a diamond in the middle. _"You have to walk your path in order to find those answers." _

"Who are you? Is she an aq..." I stopped as I looked over to see that my father wasn't there. "Father? Father? Where are you?"

"_That was just an image of your father created by your memories and a part of his soul that he sent to you from a place far away," _said the girl.

"A place far away? Just who are you anyway?"

"_I am called Nephilim." _

"So Nephilim, why did you come here?"

"_I wanted to warn you." _

"Warn me? About what?"

"_Tomorrow will bring you no comfort. Tomorrow is a day full of pain and suffering for you. I just wanted to tell you this." _I was a little taken aback by what Nephilim said. Tomorrow would be a day of suffering for me? But why?

"Why are you telling me this?"

"_I came to you because of your fate. It is safe to say that I have come to guide you."_

"Guide me?"

"_Yes, I have come to guide you to fulfilling your destiny. It will be hard road, but your father believed and still believes that you have the strength to walk down it. That is why he sealed your fate." _

"Sealed my fate? What do you mean by that?"

"_There will be a time when I can discuss why, but that time is not now." _With that Nephilim vanished.

"Wait! Don't go!" I exclaimed. It was too late, Nephilim was gone. Everything went back to normal and I was standing in my room. "What was all of that? What does it all mean?" I fell onto my bed and I starred at the ceiling for awhile. Those questions kept on repeating themselves in my head. I am confused and I have no idea what I am supposed to do. At first all I cared about was getting rid of the "Viruses" in the Eternal Sphere, then it changed to getting rid of the Executioners, and now it seems like there is some behind the scenes work between Luther, Vox, and that mysterious man. I just hope that nothing else pops up, I have enough problems already. I closed my eyes and went to bed. At late morning of the next day we had arrived at Elicoor II. We gathered at the transporter room.

"Well, this is it," said Maria.

"Time to end this journey," I said.

"Be careful all of you, you hear?" Asked Lancar.

"Don't worry, we will be fine," said Cliff.

"Get rid of those Executioners for me!" Exclaimed Peppita as she threw several punches into the air.

"Will do," said Fayt.

"Good luck, all of you," said Mirage.

"Thanks, we will be back soon with the good news," said Maria. We turned towards the transporter and walked inside. Our party consisted of: Fayt, Maria, Sophia, Cliff, Nel, Albel, and I. Just as I was about to enter the transporter room I looked back at everyone else who wasn't going with us. I turned back and walked into the transporter room. Within a second we were on Elicoor II.

"Let's go to Aquios," said Fayt. Fortunately we were transported not to far away from Aquios so it didn't take too long. We arrived at Aquios, walked inside the castle and into the Audience Chamber.

"We never expected to see any of you again," said the Queen.

"Your Majesty, I am sure that strange angel like creatures have appeared on this planet," said Maria.

"That's correct. We are having a hard time dealing with them."

"We have found a way to get rid of all of them," I said.

"Please explain."

"It's the reason we have come back. We need permission to borrow the Sacred Orb."

"The Orb? Impossible!" Exclaimed Lasselle.

"Silence Lasselle," said the Queen. She looked back at us. "If letting you borrow the Sacred Orb will get rid of those creatures then you have my permission."

"Your Majesty, thank you," said Fayt as he bowed.

"Please, get rid of those creatures. We are counting on you." We left the Audience Chamber and went over to Kaddan where the Sacred Orb is. When we arrived I picked up the Sacred Orb and activated it's power.

"Blair, can you hear me? It's Alex," I said. The Sacred Orb starrted glowing.

"I can hear you loud and clear," said Blair.

"We got the Sacred Orb."

"Excellent. Anyway, I have found the door to Luther's Private Lab."

"You have? Good, where is it?"

"There is a place called Mosel on this planet you are on. There is a altar where you have to place the Sacred Orb."

"Mosel, huh? We've been there before so this won't be too difficult."

"I will meet all of you there, be careful." The Sacred Orb stopped glowing.

"So it's at Mosel," said Nel.

"Yeah, seems like it," said Maria.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go to Mosel," said Cliff. We left Kaddan and headed back to Aquios. From there we walked to Peterny, then across the Sanmite Steppes, through the unbearably hot weather of Mosel and into the ruins. After some searching we finally found the Altar that Blair told us about. I looked over at Sophia and handed her the Sacred Orb.

"I leave this in your hands," I said.

"Okay, leave it to me," said Sophia. She looked over at Fayt.

"Don't worry, I will stick with you," said Fayt. Sophia nodded and placed the Sacred Orb onto the Altar. She waved her hands around it several times and it started glowing. The wall in front of the Altar opened up like the jaws of a creature revealing a portal.

"Whoa," said Maria.

"This is it. The door to Luther's Private Lab," I said.

"Let's go," said Fayt. We all walked into the portal. As we walked through we arrived at the Firewall.

"There you are," said Blair as she transported down.

"Blair? What are you doing here?" Asked Fayt.

"I wanted to help you. I would have come in physical form but that wasn't possible. This is the pathway to the Owner's Private Lab, even us developers don't have access to it," said Blair.

"Yeah, the only time I have ever been to Luther's Private lab was on the day that we finished the foundations of the Eternal Sphere," I said.

"Are you saying that this isn't the Owner's Private Lab?" Asked Albel.

"Yes, this is just a passageway to the Owner's Private Lab," said Blair.

"Beyond this firewall is our destination, we are almost there," I said.

"Then let's go. The sooner we get through here the sooner we meet Luther," said Fayt. We started walking through the narrow passage ways of the Firewall. After awhile we finally found the transporter that leads to Luther's Private Lab.

"Here we are. Once we walk through this transporter we will be in the Spiral Tower," said Blair. Suddenly a black cloud formed on the ground and formed into a black, spinning oval. The oval faded and there stood Vox. But instead of wearing armor he had an outfit exactly like the one my father wore in that vision.

"You've done well to make it this far," said Vox.

"You again," snarled Albel.

"What do you want?" Asked Cliff.

"How did you get here? Who are you?" Asked Blair.

"So, your journey is almost over now," said Vox. He looked over at me. "Alex, did Nephilim also tell you the truth? Did she tell you what awaits you in Luther's Private Lab?" I gasped as I heard Nephilim.

"How do you know about that?" I demanded.

"There is nothing that we can't find out about you. We know very well that Nephilim and Aldax were talking to you."

"Aldax? My Father? Did you know him?"

"No, I have only heard stories." Vox chuckled. "I will be seeing you again very soon, Alex." A black cloud appeared around Vox and it formed into a black, spinning oval. As the darkness faded away Vox was gone.

"Who was that? How could have gotten access to the Firewall so easily?" Asked Blair.

"That was Vox, other than that I don't know what else I can say about him," I said.

"By the way Alex, who is Nephilim?" Asked Maria.

"I don't know, I talked to her once in a vision I had on the Diplo. She is as much as an enigma as the reason why Vox is wearing the exact same outfit that my father was wearing in that vision." I clenched my fist. "Damn it, these unexplained questions and mysterious just keep growing. Will there ever be an end to it? Anyway, let's go." We walked through the transporter and we arrived at the Spiral Tower. We started walking but then...

"Guys, something happened to Blair!" Exclaimed Sophia. We turned around to see that Blair was gone.

"Oh no, this isn't good," I said. Sophia was right, there wasn't a trace of Blair at all.

"We have got to help her!"

"No, let's stick with the original plan," said Fayt.

"But Blair..."

"Blair can take care of herself. We need to find Luther right away," I said.

"He's right, we don't have that much time," said Cliff.

"Alright," said Sophia slowly. We continued walking and we found the elevator that led to floor two. We continued searching for Luther on the second floor when we noticed something weird. Blair stood at the elevator to the Next floor. She raised her hand and a glowing triangle with various symbols appeared, deactivating the elevator.

"Blair! What are you doing?" I exclaimed as I rushed towards her. Everyone else followed me. Blair didn't say anything.

"Blair?" Asked Maria.

"Come on, say something already you maggot," said Albel. Blair started laughing.

"That's right, I am Blair and yet I am not Blair. I am a program he created in Blair's likeness," said Blair in an evil tone.

"Once again, Luther uses his genius in the name of madness," I said.

"You watch your tongue traitor, you are in no position to be calling the Owner anything!" Said the fake in a tone of anger. The fake started laughing again. "And quite frankly the Owner wants nothing else to do with you. Actually, he would like to see you dead. I will kill you and those bugs and then take your head to the Owner."

"Go ahead and take my head..." I activated my swallow. "If you can." I looked over at Fayt and the others. "Leave this one to me."

"Alright, be careful," said Fayt. I charged towards the fake. I slashed down at her but she back flipped away from me. I charged towards her again and I shot a fire bolt spell at her. The impact of the spell sent her stumbling back. I charged in and threw my swallow at her. She jumped high into the air.

"Die!" Exclaimed the fake as she activated Death Howl. The force of the energy attack sent me flying to the ground. I slowly got up despite the pain of hitting the hard ground and got ready for the next attack. The fake was descending down towards me with a symbology spell ready. As she got closer I jumped into the air and threw my swallow at her. It stabbed her thorough the gut but at the same time she fired her symbology spell at me. The impact of the attack threw me down to the hard ground and I struggled to get back up. The fake was barely standing, clutching her wound.

"Where is Blair?" Asked Maria.

"Blair? I know nothing about her," said the fake.

"You lie!"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Am I? You will have to find her yourself." With that the Fake disappeared.

"Let's keep on going," said Fayt. We continued walking until we saw a pillar of light with Blair imprisoned in it.

"Blair!" Exclaimed Sophia.

"It's good to see you guys," said Blair.

"Not that I care, but are you really Blair?" Asked Albel.

"What do you mean?"

"We ran into a copy of you back there but it wasn't as nice as you," said Cliff.

"Oh, it must have been that fake Luther created. He really has gotten a twisted mind lately."

"Now how do we get you out of there?" Asked Fayt.

"I will take care of this," I said. I opened up a screen and started pressing a few buttons. With a matter of seconds the pillar of light disappeared and Blair was freed.

"Thanks Alex, I owe you one," said Blair.

"Are you okay?" Asked Sophia.

"Yes, I'm fine. Now, let's keep moving." We walked back over to the elevator to the next floor.

"Here is our current problem, that fake did something with this elevator and now it isn't working," said Cliff.

"I will take care of this." Blair activated a screen and turned off the security program that prevented access to the next level.

"Thanks Blair," said Maria.

"Don't mention it."

"We don't have much time left, let's go," said Fayt. We went up the Elevator to the next floor. From this point on we had to go through 8 more floors of narrow corridors, monsters, and puzzles until at last we reached a large decorated door. As I saw the door I hesitated. As I starred at those great large double doors I started to see something I had done my best not to think about. Once we are in there we may have to end up killing my best friend, and the thought of that scarred me. I couldn't see myself killing someone I called family.

"Alex, are you ready?" Asked Maria. I looked over at her.

"Why do you ask?" I asked.

"You look a little pale. Are you alright?"

"Yeah... I'm fine," I said slowly. Fayt opened the double doors. Light flooded out and we walked through into Luther's Private Lab.

* * *

_I knew that some of my questions would be answered in Luther's Private Lab. I did indeed find the truth there, but remember this: The truth isn't always a pleasant thing to know.

* * *

So the final battle has come, what will happen? What is this truth that Alex is talking about? Find out in the final chapter of Destinies gone Awry. Anyway, please review._


	12. His Destiny Gone Awry

Here is the final chapter of Destinies gone Awry. But before that, you know the drill. By the way, thank you all who reviewed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean, Kingdom Hearts, or Xenosaga.

* * *

Chapter 12: His Destiny gone Awry

At the control panel in front of the swinging pendulum was Luther. He had his back turned to us and he was looking at the screen in front of him.

"Why is this happening?" Asked Luther.

"Owner, I mean Luther. Stop this madness right now," said Blair.

"Blair? So you helped them get here! How dare you betray me, my sister?"

"You are his sister?" Asked Nel.

"Who would have thought?" Asked Albel.

"It's time to let the beings of the Eternal Sphere go on their own. They have attained a level of intellectual development that is very much like ours," said Blair.

"Your kidding me right? They're nothing but data!" Exclaimed Luther.

"But they have minds equal to ours, doesn't that give them the right to exist?"

"They have gained the power to cross into our universe and inflict harm on us. We cannot ignore dangerous entities like that. Didn't you see what they did to many security soldiers and to Azazer?"

"They didn't appear in our dimension until you tried to destroy theirs. Azazer attacked them first so it was self defense. In my mind it's clear that they have done nothing wrong by coming here to stop you." Luther looked at his sister as if she was insane.

"What are you talking about? The very existence of entities like this is causing massive bugs in the Eternal Sphere itself! Tell me what's wrong with eliminating flawed code!"

"We are the ones who wrote that code in the first place Luther. But just because we wrote that coding doesn't mean we have the right to make all the choices in their lives. We have no right to decide if they live or die!" I exclaimed. Luther turned his glance over to me.

"Alex you traitor, you, Blair, and I all know very well that those misfits dragging along with you are nothing more than a collection of 0's and 1's."

"Even if that is true, we have thoughts and feelings of our own. We came here for the sake of our galaxy," said Sophia.

"She's right, we have come all this way thanks to the thoughts and feelings of countless people. We won't let them down," said Fayt.

"Thoughts and feelings? They are nothing more than fabrications modeled on our own."

"Luther! Will you quit using those lame ass excuses and see the truth that is right in front of your eyes!" I exclaimed.

"You still don't get it, do you?" Asked Blair.

"Shut up Alex! Shut up Blair! Neither of you understand!" Luther started to look really mad. "No matter how much they develop they are still nothing but data. They must be deleted!"

"Don't think everything will go your way! We are not your toys!" Exclaimed Fayt as he drew his sword. Luther raised his hand and his spear appeared. I activated my swallow.

"Luther! Tell me what has been going on? Who was that person you were talking to? How do you know Vox? Answer me!"

"I have nothing to say to a traitor like you!" Exclaimed Luther as he zoomed towards us. I blocked as he stabbed his spear at me. I jumped and kicked Luther with both of my feet. He stumbled back and got ready to attack again.

"Then I will have to beat the answers out of you," I said. I held my swallow into the air. It started glowing and it reshaped into a large broadsword.

"Then try and get those answers, if you can," said Luther. He charged towards us again. He attempted to slash at several of us at once but we managed to either dodge or block the attack. Nel and Sophia unleashed symbology spells on Luther while Cliff pounded Luther with a few punches. Fayt and Albel slashed at Luther while Maria fired off several shots. I charged towards Luther and I hit him in the chin with my right knee. Then I punched him in the gut and he flew back to the steps that lead to the control panel. He got up and looked at me with a smirk. "Remember all of those sparring matches we used to go through?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I remember them. Especially the ones that took place in the Eternal Sphere."

"What do you think, one on one for awhile for old times sake," said Luther as he got his spear ready for an attack. "Only this time, it's not a friendly competition. It's a battle to the death."

"Sure why not?" I looked over at the others. "I'll fight Luther for awhile. If I lose this battle you will take over from where I leave off."

"Oh no, I knew that you two would find a way to fight one on one somehow," said Blair.

"Whatever Alex, just don't get yourself killed," said Maria.

"Gee, thanks for the support," I said. Luther and I charged at each other. I jumped into the air and brought my sword down towards Luther. He blocked it with his spear and then he launched a counter attack. I blocked his attack and they slashed at Luther again. This process repeated several times until finally after one point where we both spun behind each other. I focused a symbology spell and I turned around to fire it. Oddly enough Luther had done the same thing.

"LASER BEAMS!" We shouted at the same time. Within a single second both of us got showered in each other's attacks. After we had recovered we charged towards each other. As our weapons clashed together we tried to overpower each other but in the end it resulted in my sword getting cut in half and Luther's spear went flying off into another direction.

"You have gotten stronger, Alex. This will be a good fight," said Luther. Without weapons we now had to rely on symbology and our fists. Luther jumped into the air and started floating. He started firing fire bolts at me. I jumped up to one of the vertical platforms spinning around Luther's Private Lab and grabbed onto it. I snapped my fingers and the platforms started moving faster. The fire bolt spells missed me completely and Luther landed on the ground. He jumped back up as I came around near him again. He caught onto the platform next to mine and we started fighting with the only free hand and legs that we had. While we were exchanging blows Luther suddenly snapped his fingers. The platforms rotated causing both of us to fall to the ground. Luther managed to land on the ground before I did. That's when I realized what he was planning. He had landed right where his spear was. As I got closer to the ground he hit me with the blunt side of his spear, sending me flying. As I was about to go over the edge a yellow sphere of light surrounded me and brought me back in away from the edge.

"Clever, real clever," I said.

"Glad you like it, cause you are going to be staying there until I get rid of those viruses. Once I kill them, I will kill you," said Luther.

"Hang in there Alex, we will get you out of there," said Fayt. Luther charged towards Fayt and the others and they started fighting. It seems like the training I gave Fayt, Maria, and Sophia really helped them in this battle. They were able to put up a really good fight against Luther and they managed to defeat him. He stumbled back and landed on his knees on the ground.

"This can't be! I am the Creator, why is this happening?" Asked Luther. Blair bent down to her brother.

"Hurry everyone, get the Eternal Sphere back up," said Blair. Fayt started walking towards the stairs.

"How could I have been surpassed by my own creations?" Luther looked up and saw Fayt coming. He suddenly rose up and hit Fayt, causing him to fall down. Luther looked back at the control panel and then he looked around. "Now I see, it's because I took the easy way out by only erasing the problematic data. If these viruses are making their own data then I should delete everything!"

"L-Luther?" Asked Blair sounding a little afraid.

"It's just as he said, the only way to solve this problem is by deleting all the data linked to the Eternal Sphere. That will eliminate those viruses and I won't have to fight them. It's so simple! Why didn't I just take his advice?"

"Luther, who told you that?" I asked. Then Luther's words sunk into my mind. "Don't do it Luther, please don't tell me you are planning on doing that."

"That's right Alex." Luther activated the console and started typing something. "It ends now. I'll delete the whole universe!" Exclaimed Luther as he slammed his fists down onto the computer screen. A cold burst of air blew by and a large blue semi sphere of light appeared around Luther and he started laughing manically.

"What are you doing? You are putting yourself and Alex in grave danger by trying this while you are in the Eternal Sphere! Luther, no!" Exclaimed Blair. She tried to go through the barrier but she was thrown back.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! DIE! Begone, everyone and everything! I shall prevail for the sake of my universe!" Exclaimed Luther.

"I don't believe this is happening..." I said as I was trembling.

"Luther! Let me out! You won't be able to fight me if you delete me here!" I exclaimed.

"Too bad Alex, I really don't care what happens to you," said Luther. He turned his focus onto Fayt and the others. "Die viruses!" Luther activated his: Angel mode and he rose up into the air. He charged towards Fayt and the others and they started fighting. The battle was long and hard but in the end Fayt and the others prevailed. Fayt stabbed Luther in the gut and he fell to the ground. The sphere I was trapped in broke and I rushed over to Luther.

"Luther!" I exclaimed. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light. A small pillar of light appeared with a glass sphere in the center of it. Inside of the glass sphere was an odd design that looked like a heart. "Is that... the seal?" I asked.

"Correct," said a voice. A black cloud appeared and formed into a spinning oval. The black cloud faded away revealing Vox.

"Vox?" I asked.

"That is indeed the seal." Vox looked over at Luther. "Thanks for releasing the seal." Vox started laughing. "All of the pieces fell into place nicely. All but one, that piece that didn't fit was you, Alex."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Originally, you were meant to return to the Sphere Company after that test. When Fayt and his friends came through to your universe you would fight them at the Sphere Company. Although you would put up a good fight they would overpower you. You would strongly believe what Luther said was true and you would keep on fighting even though you were at your limit. But by doing this you would end up getting killed. But..." Vox paused. "Because of that incident your destiny went awry. You are the piece that doesn't belong in this picture."

"So what if what originally was meant to happen didn't happen? I am here now."

"Good, that way I can tell you the truth."

"The truth?"

"It was I and our organization who manipulated Luther into making the Executioners. Luther then manipulated you and the rest of the staff into making the Executioners. We made him believe that the beings of the Eternal Sphere would try and come to his universe and destroy everything." My eyes widened in shock? So not only was I manipulated but all of us were manipulated.

"What?" I exclaimed.

"Impossible! I refuse to believe it!" Exclaimed Blair.

"It's... true..." Said Luther in a weak voice.

"No... it can't be," I said. A spear appeared in Vox's hand.

"Now, it's time to take care of what I came here to do!" Exclaimed Vox as he stabbed the spear into the floating glass sphere. A bright light emitted from the sphere and the sphere exploded into a million pieces. The light surrounding it faded away. "Finally the seal is broken!"

"No..." I said. I remembered that my father told me to prevent that seal from being broken. Whatever happens because of that seal being broken I will be held responsible for.

"Alex..." Said Luther. I looked down at Luther again. "I'm sorry, I fell... under... their influence..." Luther coughed up some blood. "They are... very... powerful..."

"Don't talk! Save your strength!"

"After... what... I... have done... death... is the only way... to redeem myself..."

"No, there are other ways to redeem yourself! You can't die!"

"I... wish... there... was... another way... to redeem... myself. Alex... beware of them... beware of Organization XIII. They... are... planning to..." Luther went limp in my arms.

"Luther? Luther? LUTHER!" There was no response. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I shouted as tears started running down my cheeks. "This... this can't be happening..." I said between sobs. Luther was like a brother to me, he was part of my second family.

"His death was in our plans as well," said Vox with a sneer. "It's better that worthless trash like him die." I slowly looked up at Vox. No longer were my eyes filled with sorrow and grief but anger and hatred.

"It's because... of you... that Luther ended up like this. It's because of you that all of those people died in the Eternal Sphere." I got up and pulled down my sleeve. I accessed the debugging menu and started typing in a command.

"Safety lock removed," said the debugging tool.

"Alex! What are you thinking? That program is too unstable! If you use it you could end up hurting yourself!" Exclaimed Blair. I was surrounded by red energy and I started rising up into the air. Six devil wings appeared behind my back and a blood red energy sword appeared in my right hand.

"Whoa... this power is incredible," said Maria.

"Alex! Think with your head for a moment!" Exclaimed Blair. I ignored her and zoomed towards Vox. I slashed at him but he jumped out of the way. I started flapping my wings causing a bunch of energy blasts to go flying towards Vox. He blocked all of them with his lance.

"Is this all you can do with that power? You are pathetic, even I am stronger than that!" Shouted Vox as he charged towards me and hit me in the gut with his elbow. Suddenly my wings disappeared along with the sword. I fell to the ground and slowly got back up. "Ha! Looks like you forgot that your program was going to be deleted soon. Not only that because of the program slowly being deleted you could only access 70 of your power. If you were able to use 100 you could have given a good fight."

"Dammit," I said.

"You are too weak, if you want to live do not meddle in the affairs of Organization XIII."

"I swear, you won't get away with this. I swear that one day I will fight you again and I will kill you," I said. Vox started laughing.

"Bold words for a weakling." A black cloud appeared around Vox. It formed into a spinning oval and when it disappeared Vox was gone.

"He got away," I said. I looked around at Luther's lab to see that things were starting to be deleted. The spinning platforms were beginning to fade away as well.

"Oh no. The SNC, the small congulent economy has been erased. M31 the andromadic galaxy erased. IC1613 erased. NGG6822 erased. At this rate, everything will be deleted," said Blair as she looked back at me. "I'm going to leave the Eternal Sphere."

"Okay, take Luther's body with you," I said. Blair walked over to Luther.

"I can't believe that this happened. Luther, may you rest in peace," said Blair. She disappeared and took Luther with her.

"Our universe is vanishing," said Maria.

"It sure is," said Fayt.

"Are we too late?" Asked Sophia. Maria looked down at her arm. She was starting to go transparent. She looked up at me.

"What are you doing here? Get out while you still can," said Maria.

"Unlike Blair I didn't come here in a projection, I came here with my body. The only way to get out is through one of those terminals. I don't have time to get to one of them. So whatever happens to you guys after you are deleted should happen to me too," I said.

"Speaking of which, what will happen to us?" Asked Maria.

"We must believe that we exist, here and now," answered Fayt. Maria nodded.

"Your right, we are not just data."

"Yeah, just because we were told to die doesn't mean we have to give up," said Sophia. Slowly but surely Fayt and the others were disappearing. I nodded as they faded away.

"It's okay, you guys will be fine," I said. I was starting to go transparent too. I started to look around at the place that was once Luther's Private Lab but now just a black abyss. All of that hard work was gone, the Eternal Sphere was gone. Suddenly Nephilim appeared. "I have lost everything, haven't I?"

"_You may have lost many things but you still have some things left. You still have your comrades," _said Nephilim. I looked down at myself and noticed that I was slowly disappearing too.

"Tell me, are they alive?" I asked.

"_Look for them with your heart." _I closed my eyes and I saw an image of Fayt, Maria, Sophia, Cliff, Nel, and Albel standing on a field of Elicoor II. I smiled and a tear fell down my cheek.

"Thank you." Those were my last words as I completely disappeared.

* * *

Fayt's POV

* * *

When I woke up I was on a field of Elicoor II. Everyone was there but Alex. We started talking and we realized that because our minds were real we weren't deleted completely and our minds made our universe real.

"By the way, where is Alex?" Asked Sophia.

"Yeah, if we all ended up here why didn't he end up here too?" Asked Cliff.

"Maybe something happened to the fool," said Albel.

"I don't sense him anywhere, there is the possibility that he..." Started Maria as she looked down at the ground.

"You mean he is dead?" I asked.

"Yes, that seems to be the case."

"No, of all times why did we have to lose a comrade right at the end?" Asked Nel.

"It's the way things work unfortunately."

"It's hard to believe that he of all people would get killed. But I bet you that he wouldn't want us to grieve about him. He would want us to move on and celebrate our victory. So, now that we have that all settled let's leave it at that," said Cliff.

"Yeah, we exist here and now. So let's go," I said.

"Yeah, let's go," said Sophia. Maria contacted the Diplo and we were transported up. There everyone was waiting for us. As we all walked out of the transporter room they started giving us an applause.

"Well done, you guys saved the galaxy," said Lancar.

"We knew you could do it," said Mirage.

"Hey, is it just me or are you one head short? What happened to Alex? Did he go back home already?" Asked Peppita.

"He died," said Maria.

"What! How did that happen?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Well..." I started. I explained all that had happened in the final battle.

"I see, that's really unfortunate."

"Hey Lancar, do you have everything set up?" Asked Cliff.

"Sure do, it's in the lounge," said Lancar.

"Alright then, let's go party!" Exclaimed Cliff.

"Well we won, so why not?" Asked Maria. We all went to the lounge where there were several tables of food and drinks. After a long party we all went back to the transporter room. It was now time to say goodbye and move on with our ordinary lives. After we set out farewells Nel and Albel transported back down onto Elicoor II. My Dad, Sophia, Peppita, and I got onto a shuttle that was going to Moonbase. Apparently the rescued survivors of the Vendeeni attack had been taken to Moonbase. We checked the list and my Mom was one of the people who had been brought to Moonbase. Cliff, Mirage, and Maria stayed on the Diplo. Now we could continue living our lives in peace with no interference from outside forces like the Executioners. I still don't understand what the whole deal with the seal was but if the peace ever breaks again I am sure that we will join forces once again to stop the new threat.

* * *

Endings

Mirage's ending

* * *

Mirage and Cliff sat in two seats at the public transport system waiting for Mirage's flight to arrive.

"It's almost time for you to go," said Cliff.

"Yes it is," said Mirage.

"Say hi to your old man for me okay?"

"Sure Cliff."

"How long has it been since we were last there?" Mirage looked up at the ceiling.

"Around a year I think. Maybe a little longer."

"So you are going to take over the dojo?"

"Yes, with Quark disbanded I have to find a new job. So you are still going to be in politics, right?" Cliff nodded.

"Yeah, Lancar and I have a meeting to go to." A small bell went off indicating an announcement had come.

"The shuttle for Klaus system is now ready to be seated. If you are heading to the Klaus system please take this time to board. Once again, the shuttle for Klaus System is now ready to be seated. If you are heading to Klaus system please take this time to board," said the announcer.

"Well, I have to go. See you later Cliff," said Mirage as she got up. Cliff got up as well.

"Sorry I can't go with you, with things going as they are now it's not possible right now. But I will visit every now and then," said Cliff.

"Yes, you got the short end of the stick again. Don't worry Cliff, that's what I like about you." Mirage walked towards the door leading to the shuttle and walked through it.

* * *

Cliff's ending

* * *

After Mirage walked through the door, Cliff headed back to his ship where Lancar was waiting. They flew off into the sky.

"So Mirage is heading back to Klaus," said Lancar.

"Yeah, she is going to take over the dojo," said Cliff.

"Somehow I knew she was going to be the next master."

"Well yeah she is a good teacher. It's safe to say that we all saw it coming. Anyway, set a course for the Genesis System. We have to go to that meeting."

"Right, setting course for Genesis System." Lancar typed in the data and the ship sped off into gravitic warp. After a few days the two Klausians drew near the destination. "It's about time, going back to normal space." The ship went out of gravitic warp. "Now it's only a matter of 30 minutes till we reach genesis system." Lancar sighed. "Though why do we have to go all the way out here in this day and age? Why couldn't we solve this through communications."

"The problem to that is that with technology there are ways to abuse it. Until the universe becomes a place of all good and no bad, meeting face to face is the only effective method," said Cliff.

"Ah your awake?"

"Well I can't go to a meeting after just waking up."

"Yeah, true. So what do you think? Do you think all of these meetings will help the next generation of politicians?"

"It's our job to solve as many problems as we can so there aren't as many for the next generation. That way when the day comes we can retire knowing that the future is in good hands."

* * *

Nel's ending

* * *

"And that's the entire story," said Nel as she bowed before the Queen.

"I see, it is quite a remarkable story," said the Queen.

"So you said you had a new mission for me Your Majesty?"

"Yes, Lasselle will give the details."

"Apparently there has been a rise in monster population around Peterny. They have been giving merchants traveling to Peterny a hard time. You are to assemble your subordinates and get rid of any monsters in the nearby area to grant any traveler easier passage," said Lasselle.

"Understood I will leave right away," said Nel.

"But Nel, you just got back. You should rest a little before you go off on a mission."

"No, your Majesty. I can only really relax by working."

"Very well then, if you really want to go ahead with the mission then you may go."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Nel left the audience chamber.

"Is there a word for that type of person who is a hard core worker?" Asked Lasselle.

"Yes, I believe it is something like: Workaholic," said the Queen.

* * *

Albel's ending.

* * *

It was another cold day in Airyglyph. While everyone did whatever they do in their daily lives Albel just sat around. He was bored out of his mind and he didn't have anything to do.

"I can't believe I don't have any missions, this is just ridiculous. With the condition that this country is in, how could they not find something for me to do?" Albel muttered under his breath. He picked up an apple and started eating it. There was a knock on Albel's door.

"Who is it?" Asked Albel.

"The king has summoned you to the audience chamber," said the person on the other side of the door.

"Finally, maybe he has something for me to do," said Albel as he stood up and opened the door. Albel walked up to the next floor of the castle where the King was waiting.

"There you are Albel," said the King.

"What did you summon me for?"

"We have an errand for you," said Woltar.

"And this errand is what?"

"We need you to get more firewood for the grand fire place. It's really cold," said the King. Albel looked at the King as if he had grown another head, arm, and leg.

"WHAT?" Exclaimed Albel.

"Do you have a problem with that?" Asked Woltar.

"Of course I do! Isn't that a servants job? Why are you having me, a commander in the Airyglyph army, CUT FIREWOOD?"

"Well most of the servants are busy preparing the feast in celebration of the defeat of those winged beasts," said the King. Albel growled and slammed his fist onto the table.

"Alright, I'll take the stupid job." Albel stormed off and left the castle to the nearby forest. _"I can't believe that they are giving me jobs like this. If only Vox, Alex, or just about anybody would come here so I could fight them. That would be something entertaining to do," _said Albel in his thoughts as he carried the cart to the forest to get some firewood.

* * *

Fayt and Sophia's ending

* * *

"Home sweet home... sort of," said Fayt as he landed on the couch.

"Well this apartment room will have to do until Earth is rebuilt," said Dr. Leingod.

"Yeah, the damage caused by the Executioners was pretty bad. It might be awhile," said Sophia.

"We will just have to make the most of our current situation," said Mrs. Leingod.

"We are lucky to have lost very little. There are some people who lost several family members. Some lost everything," said Dr. Leingod.

"Yeah. So how about we get dinner?" Asked Fayt as his stomach growled.

"I'm kinda hungry too," said Sophia.

"Then let's go get a bite to eat," said Mrs. Leingod. The family left their apartment room and started walking over to the food court of moon base.

"Hey Fayt! Hey Sophia!" Shouted a small voice from the nearby hallway. Fayt and Maria looked over to see Peppita running over to them.

"Hey Peppita," said Fayt.

"What are you doing here?" Asked Sophia.

"I came to bring you guys some good news. Our show is almost ready!" Exclaimed Peppita excitedly as she danced around.

"Really? That's great. When is it?" Asked Fayt.

"It's tomorrow evening." Peppita pulled out four tickets. "You guys had better come, you here?"

"Alright, we'll be sure to come," said Sophia.

"Really? Great! Well see you guys later." Peppita ran off with a burst of energy.

"She's quite the energetic kid," said Mrs. Leingod.

"And to think that not too long ago she was in that hover chair," said Dr. Leingod.

"Well the younger they are, the quicker they recover," said Fayt.

"That's true."

"So, where are we going to eat?" Asked Sophia.

"I heard of a café here called Galactic Tavern, the reviews highly recommend that place," said Mrs. Leingod.

"Isn't that the place where they make those really good sandwiches?" Asked Dr. Leingod.

"Yes, I think it is."

"Sounds like a good place to eat. Let's go," said Fayt.

"Hey Uncle Robert, do you know when my parents are going to arrive here at moonbase?" Asked Sophia.

"When last I talked to them they said they would be here late tomorrow evening," said Dr. Leingod.

"Really?" Asked Sophia as a smile appeared on her face.

"It's been a long time since you last saw them, I am sure that they can't wait to see you again," said Fayt.

"I can't wait to see them either. It's been a long hard journey for all of us, but it gives us a good story to tell around the dinner table don't you think?" Asked Sophia.

* * *

Maria's ending

* * *

After disbanding Quark, Maria packed her bags and put them at the transporter. But before leaving she decided to go say goodbye to everyone first. She walked over to the bridge.

"Hey Maria, I thought you were leaving," said Marietta.

"I decided I should at least say goodbye to all of you guys, we have all been through a lot together. The lot of us are like family in a way," said Maria.

"Yeah, so you are going to find somewhere peaceful to live? We could check up the database to see if we could find any place you want to live"

"No, I think I will someplace by myself."

"Huh? Well okay. Just be careful out there, the feds will be trying to find you. Maria smiled.

"Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, I just think you should be cautious." Maria looked down as if something was on her mind. "What's wrong?"

"Well it's just that... I was thinking about Alex. I never got the chance to say thank you for all he had done to help us defeat the Executioners. He put his life on the line for the sake our galaxy, and out of those acts of bravery all he got was death."

"I think he knows that you appreciate what he has done for you and the others. In the afterlife he will watch over you guys."

"Yeah you right," said Maria with a smile.

"We wish you the best of luck in your search for a home," said Steeg.

"Thanks, see you guys again someday." Maria left the bridge and got onto her private shuttle. It launched out of the Diplo and into space.

* * *

Epilogue: Restoration

* * *

Back in the 4D universe, their was much debate in the Sphere Company on what to do with the company now that the Owner was dead and their biggest money maker was gone. Many argued that they should start a new kind of business while others say that they should make a new Eternal Sphere. But what they didn't notice was something that had popped up onto one of the screens. The computer had booted up on it's own. On screen it said: **Conditions met... Genesis Circuit activated...**

Meanwhile, in a place far away. A man slept inside of a large glass oval floating in the air. He had shaggy brown hair and a scar running down the right part of his forehead to the left part of his jaw. He wore an all black outfit with a zipper in the center running from just below his neck to the very edge of the coat. On both sides of the zipper there were two lines of thread dangling down to the edge of his chest. On each end point was a beautifully carved bead. Overlapping the string and the zippers was a silver like chain necklace that hung from one end of the hood to the other. This man was wearing black gloves and strange black boots. As he opened his eyes he found himself on a beach. It was really dark and the only source of light was a moon that was almost as bright as the sun. In the ground were large and small rocks as black as night itself. Extending from the shoreline and across the water in various places were large arches of stone with similar texture to coral. In some places the arches looked like bones of ancient monsters. In front of the man were two people, a young girl with orange hair and blue eyes and next to her was a woman with short white hair and yellowish orange eyes.

"Nephilim?" Asked the man. He looked around. "Where am I?"

"_This place will play a very important role soon. When you meet the one whom your fate is tied to you will come to this place one day. On that day you will fulfil your destiny,"_ said Nephilim.

"Okay, so it will be important in the future. But in that case, why am I here now?"

"_This is not reality, this is a dream, your dream,"_ said the woman with white hair.

"My dream? So I am sleeping?"

"_For now you are indeed sleeping. Your body was destroyed, so while you are sleeping you are gaining a new body. One day you will wake up, and on that day your journey will begin. For now, you will remain here." _

"How long am I going to have to be here?"

"_For a year," _said the woman with silver hair. The man's eyes widened in shock.

"What? An entire year here? Alone?"

"_Yes, we will see you again someday Alex." _Nephilim looked over at the woman with silver hair. _"It's time for us to depart Feb." _Feb nodded and they both disappeared.

"Wait!" Alex exclaimed. He sighed. "Well I guess I am stuck here for an entire year." He looked out at the ocean and slowly memories of his friends started to come back to him. "I wonder if I will ever see them again." And so Alex sat down on the nearby rock and waited for the day of his awakening.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

* * *

Yes, as you can tell there is going to be a sequel, it's going to be called Dark Horizon. The first chapter should be out anywhere from early April to mid April. This will be a major cross over fan fic with games like Kingdom Hearts II, Xenosga, and quite a few more. There might even be a few more things that will be in this grand scale cross over but until then I am not going to say anything else about that subject. In the mean time I plan on working on one of my older stories, Vacation. It's been a long time since I did anything with that story. Well until Dark Horizon, see you later! 


End file.
